A Life Long Forgotten
by NAster
Summary: Kim and Ron are sent to deliver a strange message to Shego, of all people. Who is this mysterious writer who calls himself an old friend and what are the details behind Shego's transformation from hero to villian? They are about to find out...
1. Prologue

A/N: I've actually been toying with this idea for awhile and finally got some of it typed up! I'm still working on my Buzz fic, it's just been really slow going right now so I decided to work on this for the time being. Obviously, I don't own Kim Possible or any related characters. Any characters you don't recognize from the show are mine, tho. Just thought I'd make that clear. So, ya, here it is, my first KP fic. R&R!

A Life Long Forgotten

Prologue

-8 years ago-

A shadowy figure raced through the streets, rain pounding against her as if it was trying to hold her back. Her vision blurred with the sting of saltwater, she pressed on, charging through the wind like an angry mustang. Her feet pounded through every puddle in the street, sending a grotesque mixture of mud, rainwater, and yesterday's garbage onto her already drenched clothing. The rain pelted her and the wind pushed her, but nothing could keep her from running. A sleek black cat darted into her path. But, without hesitation, she leaped over the frightened creature and continued on.

Up the street and around the corner she ran, not stopping once for breath. A rusty old building with broken shutters and peeling paint slowly came into view, a sign reading "Bayside Coffeehouse" swinging violently in the wind. She darted up the porch steps and burst threw the creaking door, sending it crashing against the wall.

Every eye in the place turned to the strange woman, soaked to the skin and pale with fright, standing awkwardly in the doorway. The girl broke the eerie silence with a slightly faltering voice, "Has anyone heard of a Drew Lipsky?" her plea was met with silence. "Come on!" her voice grew more demanding, "Has anyone heard of Drew Lipsky?"

"You mean that nutcase from Toronto?" a burly man wrapped tightly in a thick jacket answered her.

"Yeah, that's him!" her bright green eyes widened considerably as she stepped towards the man, "Where is he? Where can I find him?"

The man snorted, "What's in it for me?"

The woman's eyes narrowed. She clenched her fists and looked down at them, as if staring at them would somehow send the man flying across the room. She raised her head and met his eyes with a fierce glare.

"Tell me where he is!" she shouted.

Half the people in the room laughed, the man crossed his arms mockingly, "Oh, and what are you gonna do about it little girl?" he scoffed.

The laughter continued for another instant. The woman's scowl deepened, her nails digging into the flesh of her palm. Suddenly, her arms flew out to the man's throat. Lifting him up by the shirt collar, she shoved him roughly against the wall, making him kick and squirm like a dying fish.

"Tell me where he is!" she shouted louder.

The man's countenance whitened, "The cops just arrested him. He's at the county jailhouse."

"If you're lying to me…"

"I'm not lying! That's all I know, I swear!" he struggled to pry her fingers off his neck, but to no avail.

The woman stared at him, her eyes seeming to bore into his soul. "You'd better pray he's still there," she said, "and you better pray we never meet again, 'cause these hands can do a lot more than choke!" The man shuddered thinking of what else this woman was capable of doing. With one final glare, the woman released him, sending his body crashing to the floor, and turned to leave.

The man rubbed his neck, "What're you so desperate about?" he asked. "It's not like it's the end of the world."

The woman slowly pivoted to face him, "It's the end of mine," she said quietly. And, with that final bitter statement, she turned and darted out of the coffeehouse into the pelting rain.

-Present day-

A familiar tune echoed from deep inside Kim Possible's backpack. The teenage crime fighter hastily pulled out her Kimmunicator, pressing a button to reveal the computer genius on the other end. "What's the sitch, Wade?" she asked. She was sitting in a booth in Bueno Nacho with her sidekick, Ron, and his pet, Rufus, who were engulfing a plate of nachos.

"You got a hit on your site, Kim. And you'll never guess who it was from,"

Kim shrugged, "Surprise me," she said indifferently.

"Drew Barrymore, say its Drew Barrymore," Ron darted around the table so he could see the Kimmunicator screen.

"Not even close," Wade replied.

"Can't blame a guy for trying," Ron said.

Kim rolled her eyes, "Who is it Wade?" she asked.

"Hego,"

"What?" Kim and Ron exclaimed in unison.

"He wants you to meet him at his house. He needs your help with something,"

"Any clue what?" Kim asked.

"Kim, duh," Ron said, "it's about Shego. What else?"

"Why would Hego call us about his sister?" Kim asked.

"I dunno, maybe he wants us to get her back on the good side."

"Ron, this is Shego we're talking about, she's not going back to the good side and there's nothing anybody can do about it!"

"Hey, you're the one with the 'I can do anything' motto."

"Even my abilities have their limits, Ron."

"So, you're gonna take it?" Wade asked.

"Of course," Kim replied, "I can't back out when I don't even know what the mission is."

"Good. I'll get you a ride to Go City, good luck on the mission," Wade said.

"Thanks Wade," Kim turned off the Kimmunicator and slid it back into her backpack. Something told her this would be no ordinary mission.

----------

"Thanks for the lift, Simon," Kim shouted over the roar of the helicopter.

"Don't mention it. It's the least I could do after you rescued me from that desert island," Simon yelled back.

"No big." Kim and Ron strapped parachutes to their backs and Ron slid the door to the helicopter open. Rufus peeked out of Ron's pocket, glanced down at the teeny cars and buildings thousands of feet below them, and slid back into pocket cautiously.

"Uh, Kim, I've been thinking," Ron said, "Why does the sidekick always have to go first?"

"Ron, you never go first," Kim said.

"Well, why do I have to go first now?"

"Because we're jumping out of a plane and I have to make sure you actually jump."

"Good point." Ron took a deep breath and leaped from the helicopter.

"Wow," Kim said to Simon, "I thought I was gonna have to push him,"

She jumped after Ron and floated in mid-air, the wind pushing her fiery red hair behind her. Both teenagers executed a perfect landing onto an abandoned parking lot.

"Alright, Ron, let's jet!" Kim said.

Ron took a step and came crashing down onto the pavement. The parachute chords had wound themselves around his legs. "Right behind ya, KP!" he wrestled with chords for a moment and then raced to catch up with his friend.

----------

The door slid open and an anxious looking Hego poked his head out, eyeing the teenagers skeptically.

"Kim Possible?" he asked in a low voice.

"Yes," Kim whispered back.

"Were you followed?"

"I…don't think so,"

"Come inside, quickly," he ushered the teenagers in and slammed the door shut after them. He then proceeded to lock a row of various padlocks running down the side of the door.

"So, Hego, what's with the high security?" Ron asked.

Hego turned to face them and sighed, "Someone is after me," he said, quietly.

Kim and Ron looked at each other, "What makes you think that?" Kim asked.

Hego motioned for them to follow him into the kitchen. Reaching into a drawer, he pulled out a slip of paper and a small, crystal-like stone.

"This was on my doorstep yesterday," he said, handing the piece of paper to Kim.

"_To the adoring brother of my old companion: Hego, _

_I want you to deliver this trinket to your sister. She'll know what it is. She'll also know that if she doesn't comply with our bargain and meet me at dusk at the Red Windmill, I will be forced to track her down, and we wouldn't that, now would we? My deepest gratitude for passing on this message._

_An old friend."_

"Doesn't sound like a good friend to me," Ron said.

"I know who it is," Hego replied. "His name's Zeb. He was Shego's best friend ever since we were little. I never trusted him, though."

"Why? Was he like Drakken or something?" Kim asked.

"He never tried to take over the world, if that's what you're asking," Hego said, "He just always seemed to get my sister into trouble. I must have explained to her thousands of times she shouldn't associate with troublemakers like him. She never listened, though."

"Sounds like Shego," Ron said.

"Well, what happened to him?" Kim asked.

"He went off to some college in Toronto and none of us ever saw him again."

"He didn't keep in touch?" Ron asked. He couldn't imagine being separated from Kim for so long without at least calling everyday.

"For awhile you couldn't get a call through to our house, he bombarded us with them. But one day they just stopped coming."

"No reason?" Kim asked.

"None that I know of. Shego was pretty upset, now that I think about it. She kept going on and on about how something must have happened to him. It was completely ridiculous though, just because one guy stops tying up our phone line doesn't mean the world's ending."

"So, any idea what the bargain was, or where the Red Windmill is?" Kim wondered.

"Not a clue. Of course, I know very little about what happened to Shego after she quit Team Go."

Kim and Ron looked at each other. It was true; Hego didn't even know that Shego was working for Dr. Drakken until recently. Shego had completely cut herself off from the family, and nobody had every successfully located her until Kim and Ron came along.

"So, that's why I came to you. Quite frankly, you know more about my sister now than I do. I don't even know where to start looking for her." Hego said.

Kim pulled out her Kimmunicator, "Wade," she said, "I need you to locate Drakken and Shego."

"No problem, Kim," Wade replied.

"Please and thank you!" Kim looked up from the Kimmunicator screen. Ron and Rufus had wandered into the living room and were looking at a photo album. Hego was still sitting at the table, reading the note over and tapping the strange crystal.

"Any idea what that is?" Kim pointed to the gem.

"It has a similar color as this necklace my mom used to own. It was much smaller, though, and disappeared a long time ago."

"Stolen?"

"I can't imagine why. My mom found it on the street, it was completely worthless."

"Maybe the thief didn't know that," Kim said thoughtfully. "Wade, can you scan this for me?" she said, lifting up the crystal for Wade to see.

"Sure thing, Kim," a thin metal drawer with a metallic grid covering its surface slid out from the side of the Kimmunicator. Kim gingerly placed the crystal on the drawer and waited while a series of lights ran through the stone, reflecting miniature rainbows onto the walls.

"Hmm, it has a pretty complicated molecular structure," Wade scratched his head. "I'll have to run it through the computer a couple of times."

"Take you're time, Wade," Kim reassured him.

"Hey, Kim, look at this," Ron shouted from the living room. Kim looked over his shoulder at the picture he was pointing to. It featured two small children, one that was obviously a younger version of Shego, and another with messy brown hair and chocolate ice cream literally covering his face. The picture looked strange in a way, the boy had a goofy, playful look and his face and Shego was giggling uncontrollably, displaying an incredibly innocent expression Kim had never seen before.

"That's Zeb," Hego placed his finger on the boy, "they were about seven or eight here."

Ron turned the page to reveal photo after photo of Shego and Zeb. Shego and Zeb riding bikes, Shego and Zeb shooting each other with squirt guns, Shego and Zeb climbing into a roughly made tree house, Shego and Zeb laughing together, Shego and Zeb doing everything you'd never expect villains bent on world conquest to be doing. One photo differed from the rest. It featured Shego and her brothers, along with a host of other people Kim didn't recognize, grouped around a huge sign that read "Welcome to Go City."

"That was from the Go family reunion," Hego said.

"So, Go really is your last name?" Ron said.

"Well, not exactly," he said, "Our great great grandfather founded Go City. He was so obsessed with his name, Gordon Gothesamine, that he named it after himself. No one could pronounce it, so they shortened it to Go. All his descendants since then have had 'go' somewhere in their name."

"And all this time I thought you guys had no last name." Ron said.

Kim couldn't help but stare at the photo. Everyone had wide, genuine smiles stretched across their faces. Shego, on the other hand, had a noticeably forced grin plastered under her nose. It may have been that way because she was smashed between Hego and another man in his mid-forties with missing teeth and barbeque sauce smeared all over himself. It looked like an uncomfortable position for a contortionist, not to mention a seven year-old girl. Of course, knowing Shego she probably didn't want to be there anyway.

_"She seems so out of place…"_ Kim thought.

The Kimmunicator beeped again, Kim whipped it out, "Go Wade," she said.

"I can't identify the stone, its some sort of crystal alloy. I do know someone who can help you, though. Her name's Feliah, she's a geologist who specializes in crystals. I can get you a ride if you want."

"Thanks Wade," Kim smiled, "Oh, did you find Drakken and Shego?"

"Got 'um. There in a new lair just outside of New Orleans. I'll give you the coordinates."

"Please and thank you." Kim jotted down the coordinates onto a slip of paper and pocketed it. "Okay, Ron," she turned to her friend, "let's see if we can get to the bottom of this."

"Alright! New Orleans' food rocks!" Ron slapped palms with Rufus.

"Actually, Ron, I think it would be better if we saw this Feliah person first," Kim said.

"Why?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, why?" Rufus echoed him.

"Because, she'll be able to tell us what the crystal is. If it's worth a lot of money, it was probably stolen."

"I'd doubt it," Hego said, "as I said earlier, my mother had a necklace just like it that was completely worthless."

"It probably is," Kim said, picking up the gem and examining it once more.

"You know, KP," Ron stood up to get a closer look at the crystal, "now that I think about it, that rock does look kinda familiar."

"What?" Kim and Hego said in unison.

"Yeah, I think I've seen it somewhere before."

Kim glanced at it again, trying to take in every detail. It was shaped in a rough, slightly lopsided diamond. It had grooves etched into the sides, as if someone ran a sharp rock across the surface of the crystal in order to make it smooth. It had a metallic black color that caught light incredibly easily, reflecting thousands of tiny rainbows across the walls constantly. Despite its dark color, the crystal was remarkably transparent, as if she was looking through colored cellophane instead of a black rock.

"There's really nothing very distinguishing about it," Kim said, "It looks like a crystal that desperately needs to be cut and polished. The color does seem weird, but I don't know a lot about rocks," she turned to Ron, "you might've seen one like it in a jewelry store or something."

"Uh, KP, when was the last time I stepped inside a jewelry store."

"I don't know. Let's just take it to Feliah; she'll know what it is." Kim placed the crystal into her pocket along with the note.

"Oh, and since you're gonna see Shego," Hego picked up a giant cardboard box filled with videotapes, "could you take this to her. It's some of her old stuff she left here. I completely forgot about it the last time I saw her."

"Uh, sure." Kim grabbed one end of the box and Ron grabbed the other. Both teenagers struggled under its weight.

"What is this stuff?" Ron asked.

"Just some old videos Zeb taped."

"If their Zeb's, then why did Shego have them?" Ron asked.

"I have no idea. That kid had more video's than he knew what to do with. He took that camera of his everywhere. The park, the beach, the movies, he even brought it to school a couple of times."

"Why?" Kim asked.

"Kim, less talking, more walking," Ron said, his arms beginning to shake under the weight of the box.

"Well, thanks for coming down here, kids, I appreciate it." Hego said.

"No problem," Kim said, slowly walking out of the door with Ron and the bulging box, "I can totally handle it."

A/N: So, what do think? Now its time for you to push the lil button in the left corner and tell me. BTW, does anyone know what the Red Windmill is referring to? I'm gonna explain it later, I was just wondering if anyone figured it out yet.


	2. Feliah Morgan

**AN: Sorry guys, I wish had a decent explanation for my, erm…disappearance. All I can say is I rewrote this chapter at least 5 times before I pretty much gave up on the whole thing. I hardly have time for writing or internet anymore, that's just life I guess. Anyways for the longest time I had given up on this story, until a friend let me borrow the _Wicked_ soundtrack. Such an awesome musical! What really scared me was that some of my ideas for this story were similar to the plot in _Wicked_. They shouldn't be too noticeable considering I keep changing my ideas for this story, but just in case, anything you see in this story remotely similar to _Wicked_, either the book or the musical, is purely coincidence. Anyways, after becoming a _Wicked_ fan I decided to give this chapter one more rewrite and this is what I came up with. I'm not thrilled with it, but at least I'm not making a million plot changes at the last minute! I dunno how long it will take me to update again, what with school starting and all that jazz. All I can say is I'll update as soon as I can. **

Chapter 1: Feliah Morgan

After leaving Go City, Kim and Ron hastily returned home to Middleton to drop off the remarkably heavy boxes of videos and grab a snack, at least Ron did, and then rushed back to the airport to catch a flight to Washington State, where Feliah currently worked. Kim had spent the majority of the flight catching up on homework, as she usually did. Ron on the other hand, had managed to grab a few brochures on "The Famed Restaurants of Louisiana" and was thoroughly absorbed in reading one.

"Hey, Kim, did you know that Breaux Bridge, Louisiana is the crawfish capital of the world!" he stated in awe.

Kim looked up from her textbook and laughed, "I swear, Ron, you learn more from reading those brochures than you do a whole year in history class."

"Well, if Mr. Lee wasn't as boring as a rock I might learn a lot more," Ron said, defensively.

Kim couldn't help but nod in agreement. Mr. Lee was a very dull teacher. His low monotone almost put her to sleep a number of times. Combine that with his endless slideshow presentations and lectures, it was a wonder if anybody learned anything in that class.

"Hey Kim, did you know that the capital of Louisiana is French for 'Red Stick'? Who would name a city Red Stick?" Ron stared at the brochure, completely baffled.

Kim shrugged, trying to shift her concentration to the textbook opened in front of her. It was becoming more and more difficult for her to focus on her schoolwork. Her mind kept shifting from school, to missions, to Ron, to those shoes she saw at Club Banana, to her family, to Ron, to the new cheer routine, to Ron, to the upcoming summer, to Ron…Oh, why did she bother denying it? Most, if not all, of her thought-life had become devoted to Ron. It wasn't like much of their relationship had changed, externally. In fact, if you hadn't seen the events of Prom Night two weeks ago and hadn't heard any of the gossip that flooded Middleton High, you would probably assume she and Ron weren't dating at all. And yet, Kim felt like a totally different person around him now. She was more observant of him, more aware of habits, his speech, his nature, than she ever had been before. Several times she caught herself staring absent-mindedly at him, trying hopelessly to figure out what he was thinking. Was this how relationships were supposed to work? Or was she doing something wrong?

Kim winced as a painful headache suddenly hit her, like a hammer crashing cruelly against her skull. She nearly snapped her pencil in half in an effort to calm her throbbing head. The pain increased unmercifully, the sound of a thousand insects humming filling her ears. Kim bit her lip, trying to relieve the pain by shifting it to another part of her body, but the effort proved useless and the pain persisted.

"You got one of those headaches again, KP?" she heard Ron say, his normally cheerful voice filled with concern. She didn't dare to look at him, the slightest movement of her head made her want to scream.

"C….Can you hand me an aspirin?" she said, gritting her teeth. Ron laid a comforting hand on her shoulder as he reached into her backpack and pulled out a plastic bottle. She eagerly tore the cap of and dropped two chalky pills into her mouth. The headaches had started a little over a week ago. Faintly at first, but each one had grown more and more painful to the point where she couldn't bear it. At first she had chosen to ignore them, after all, she was Kim Possible, and a silly thing like a few headaches shouldn't bother her in the slightest. But now…now it felt like her head was about to explode! Kim felt her body shudder as if she was suddenly thrown into an icy lake, and then all pain disappeared as suddenly as it came.

Kim let out a huge sigh of relief, lying back against the cushioned seat triumphantly. Ron, however, didn't look so relieved. "You ok, KP?" he asked her, obviously concerned.

"Of course, Ron. I'm fine," she said, matter-of-factly.

"You weren't fine two minutes ago," Ron pointed out. Rufus, who had woken from a short nap in Ron's pocket, nodded in agreement.

"Well, I'm fine now," Kim replied, slightly irritated that he insisted on pressing the matter.

"Maybe we should call this off and tell your…"

"Nobody is telling anybody anything," she said firmly, crossing her arms to indicate her annoyance. Ron had been nagging at her for the past week to tell her parents about her migraines. She had immediately dismissed the idea. Her parents had enough problems on their hands already; they didn't need to worry about a pointless headache. Besides, the migraines were merely a stage she was going through, probably from stress, and they went away as quickly and easily as they came. She was confident they would go away completely if she just relaxed a little. Now, if only Ron could see the issue her way.

"I'm serious, Kim, these headaches are a real problem,"

"Ron, it's no big, trust me!" she exclaimed, putting the emphasis on the word "trust". Ron sighed, surrendering his argument, simultaneously wishing he had Kim's skill at winning arguments.

Kim shut her textbook quietly, determined to get some rest before the plane landed. _"It's just stress,"_ she told herself, _"You have nothing to worry about."_

----------

"Room 306, this is it!" Kim said, stepping towards the blue painted door and pushing it open with an air of confidence. She froze once she got her first glance of the room. Between her missions and having a rocket scientist for a father, Kim had visited quite a number of laboratories, but she had never seen one like this. She had never seen _any_ room like this.

Whereas most labs were primarily white, this lab was primarily grey. The walls were painted a soft blue-grey color and were completely bare of pictures. Thick, black curtains were nailed to the walls covering the room's single window, as if the owner of the room couldn't tolerate any sunlight. In fact, if it weren't for the tall floor lamp shoved in a corner the room nobody would be able to see anything. A large cabinet sticking out of the wall like a lone tooth in a young baby's mouth served as a sort of junk drawer with books and glass jars filled with sand and various sized rocks cluttering its shelves. A bulky microscope served as the room's only remotely modern appliance. It sat atop a small, white desk in the middle of the room, its surface was littered with books, loose sheets of paper, and two rather large, black boots attached to a rather slim woman, relaxing in a chair and bobbing her head to the music blasting from her headphones to her ears.

As soon as she noticed Kim and Ron, she turned off the device and offered them a large, yet almost unnatural, smile.

"What can I do for you children?" she said, lowering her feet to the laminated floor. Her voice was surprisingly rich and melodious, a deep contrast to the rest of the room.

Kim decided it would be better to introduce them before stating their business. "You must be Feliah Morgan. I'm Kim Possible," she said, "and this is…"

"Ah, yes, the teen hero and her sidekick," Feliah interrupted, "Ron Stoppable, isn't it?" Ron's jaw dropped. A complete and total stranger knew his name! "Yes, I've heard all about your adventures," she continued, "quite fascinating actually. Though I do admit you've caught me off guard. To what do I owe this honor?" She leaned back in her chair again; her large eyes sparkled with interest and glided slowly up and down her to visitors. Kim sensed she was taking in every detail of their appearance, perhaps even deeper, and mentally filing it away somewhere for future use. Though what that future use could possibly be, Kim had no idea.

Kim's eyes narrowed as she attempted the same feat and evaluated the woman sitting in front of her. She had a thick, tangled mass of black hair that reached to the middle of her back. Streaks of grey ran through it in large clumps, suggesting that she was no longer a young woman. She had a pair of large, brown eyes, heavily made up and framed by thick eye lashes. She also had a way of lowering her eyelids halfway and still maintaining an intense focus on whatever she happened to be looking at. It was almost…unnerving. Her nose and lips seemed to match the rest of her body; long and fluid. The only features that seemed to contradict this were her fascinating eyes. Her clothing consisted of mainly two colors: black and a rusty orange. She wore an orange shirt that reached to the middle of her forearm and black shirt with a ruffled collar and sleeves on top of it. Her hands were covered with a pair of small, black gloves with holes cut for the fingers, revealing ten slender appendages and incredibly thick, sharp nails. Looking at them made Kim slightly nauseous, they were wider and longer than her actual fingers and each curled over slightly, mimicking a deadly Arabian saber. A thick belt marked the transition from her shirt to her pants, which were so loose her legs seemed to drown in the fabric. A small side pocket had been crudely sewn onto the side of her left leg. A pair of hideous old boots along with an orange dog collar fastened around her neck completed her attire. Kim shuddered at the collection of fashion-don'ts that made up Feliah's appearance. The only really beautiful thing about her was her eyes, and those were covered in so much eye-shadow and mascara they quickly lost their impact.

Kim glanced waywardly at Ron, who looked slightly confused in all the silence. His large brown eyes darted from her, to Feliah, then back to her again. Kim decided now would be a good time to speak.

"I understand that you specialize in crystals," Kim said.

"Yes…" Feliah replied slowly, glancing suspiciously at Kim and Ron.

"Can you identify this?" Kim reached into her pocket and held out the crystal. At first glance, Feliah didn't seem to be very interested. However, upon looking at it a second time, her expressive eyes widened and she was barely able to choke out a "Where did you get that?"

Her reaction somewhat startled Kim and Ron. They were expecting laughter, or maybe a simple, "This is completely worthless," they weren't expecting the bewildered look they were getting and it threw them off quite a bit.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Kim asked.

Feliah's stunned look vanished and she resumed her normal, relaxed state. "Begging your pardon," her jagged nails stretched out towards the gem, clasping it in her hand, "I believe I mistook it for something else." The crystal firmly in her grasp she dug through several drawers in the desk before fishing out a giant magnifying glass.

"You can tell what it is by looking through _that_?" Ron asked, skeptically.

"Hush, boy," Feliah snapped her fingers literally underneath Ron's nose. He and Rufus gulped and stared in horror at her sharp nails.

Feliah stared into the magnifying glass at the ebony crystal. She spent a few minutes turning it, tapping it roughly with a pointed finger and frowning in perplexity. Out of nowhere, a sleek black cat leaped onto the desk, knocking several papers onto the floor and purring loudly. Feliah seemed so absorbed in her study of the crystal she didn't notice the cat…but Rufus did.

With a terrified shriek, he leaped from Ron's shoulder a made a mad dash towards the door. "Rufus!" Ron started after his pet, but with one bound from her long legs the cat beat him to it. She arched her back, the fur on her tail standing on end, and hissed cruelly at the petrified mole rat plastered in fear against the wall. Feliah dropped the crystal and leaped after the cat along with Kim, and the two ended up knocking into each other. As they groaned and rubbed the spot where their heads met, the cat had Rufus racing furiously around the room. In a desperate move, Rufus darted straight for the opposing wall, then, at the last second before impact, darted in another direction. The cat hadn't suspected that and slid almost gracefully into the wall, knocking a few things from the cabinet above her onto the floor, which she was barely able to dodge. Feliah groaned as she watched a particularly large jar of sand crash, coating the cat and everything within a three foot radius in a shower of brown dust. Rufus took advantage his opportunity and squeezed himself in the cramped space between the desk and the floor. He had barely concealed himself before the cat was up on her feet once more, pawing and scratching viciously at the hole Rufus just crawled through. Ron, Kim, and Feliah raced around the desk to where the cat was attempting to scratch through three inches of solid oak. Feliah got there first and scooped the cat up gingerly into her arms. The cat fought and dug her claws into Feliah's ugly orange shirt. Feliah struggled with the cat, gritting her teeth every time it scratched her arm.

"Come now, Bastet," she said to the cat between clenched teeth. "This is no way for you to behave," Bastet didn't cease her struggling "Curse it! If you don't velvet those claws this instant I shall bloody well be forced to skin you alive!" Feliah shouted in frustration, her voice morphing into a sort of refined British accent. What happened next left Kim and Ron rather stunned. Bastet released her hold on Feliah and dropped to the floor, looked up at her mistress through large, yellow eyes filled to the brim with remorse, and slunk out of the room with drooped shoulders, slamming the door behind her with her tail.

Seeing that the coast was clear, Rufus scurried out from his hiding place and into Ron's open palm. "It's okay, buddy," he said, to the quivering mole rat.

Feliah's large eyes fell on Rufus, making both him and Ron slightly uncomfortable. "That's quite an animal you've got," she said, her voice returning to its normal accent.

"Rufus is more than an animal," Ron said defensively, "and…and that cat of yours almost ate him!"

"Ron, don't…" Kim began.

"Bastet? Oh, she's not really my cat. Nobody's actually. That poor thing wanders about like a fish out of water. I feed her a bit and help her when need be, so I suppose she's my cat in that respect. But it's hard to be someone's pet when you refuse to obey them, eh?"

"Are you kidding?" Ron said looking at Feliah in disbelief, "you practically ordered her to walk out and she did. It's like she understood every word you said!"

"Uh, Ron, Rufus understands every word we say," Kim said, pointing out the flaw in his reasoning as politely as she could.

"Yeah," Rufus squeaked, crossing his arms defensively.

Ron grinned sheepishly in apology.

"So, about the rock," Kim said, turning towards Feliah.

"Oh, of course, how impertinent of me!" Feliah smiled slyly and reached for the crystal. "It really is an excellent trick," she said holding it up so the facets caught the light and reflected it into millions of bouncing rainbows. "The mastermind who created it must be very proud."

"So, it isn't worth anything?" Kim said.

Feliah shook her head, making the stray bits of hair that were cut far too short tremble. "Sorry, darling," she dropped the rock into Kim's hand, "I'm afraid it's a fake."

"Well, it didn't hurt to check," Kim slipped the crystal into her pocket all the while trying to forget that someone had called her "darling". "Thank you for your time, Ms. Morgan," she said as she and Ron slipped quietly out the door.

"My pleasure, children," Feliah replied, watching them leave. As soon as their footsteps disappeared down the hall Bastet emerged and crept towards her mistress, her bright yellow eyes gleaming with understanding. Feliah lifted the cat and placed it on her lap, gently stroking her sleek black head. "That's very interesting," she whispered to herself, a sly smile stretching across her face.

----------

"That's it! It's brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"

Shego groaned and lowered her magazine, "What is it this time, doc?" Drakken had been at it all day, forking out one brilliant-take-over-the-world-plan after another. Unfortunately, most of them either involved technology so bizarre it would take centuries to invent, or was just plain idiotic.

"It's so perfect I can't believe I thought of it," Drakken ranted, raising a rolled up blueprint like it was the Declaration of Independence.

"Well, what is it?" Shego snapped, growing somewhat impatient.

Drakken unrolled the blueprint, beaming with pride. "Alright, first we build a giant magnet so powerful it can suck up every ship, every plane, and every tank of every army in the entire globe. Then, we use our new arsenal to invade every superpower of the world. With no weaponry to speak of, the entire globe will be forced to surrender to ME!" Drakken ended his rant with a flourish, raising his arms in the air and laughing menacingly.

Shego waited motionless for him to run out of breath. When he finally did, she lowered her magazine, looking skeptically up at her ecstatic boss. "So, what about everything else?"

"Huh?" Drakken said, still displaying and insanely wide smile.

"Well, don't you think the magnet is gonna pick up things other than weapons. Lots of things are magnetic ya know. Some buildings, cars, nails, street signs, what are we supposed with those, have a garage sale?"

Instantly the acre-wide grin vanished from Drakken's face. He crumpled the blueprint into a huge ball and tossed it nonchalantly over his shoulder to the giant mountain of balled up papers nearly reaching to the ceiling. "That's it, I'm out of ideas!" He groaned miserably and collapsed onto the desk he had been working on. "My inspiration has finally run dry. My muse for evil schemes has left…"

"Oh, quit being so dramatic!" Shego said, rolling her eyes and picking up her magazine once more. It was like this every time. Drakken got an idea, it stunk, and he pouted for hours like an immature child until he got another one.

Scarcely a moment had passed before an image of Kim and Ron running down the sidewalk, Kim with her Kimmunicator out and Ron trying to stuff a sandwich down his throat while keeping up with his girlfriend, appeared on a computer screen. A recording of a high-pitched feminine voice came on over the loudspeakers, "Kim Possible 100 feet enclosing."

"All those years, all those endless nights pouring over science textbooks and the Villains Weekly…" Drakken had been so busy ranting he hadn't noticed the warning. Without stopping for breath he continued, "…changing lairs 57 times!"

"Uh…Dr. D?" Shego said, trying to turn his attention towards the computer screen.

"Kim Possible 70 feet enclosing."

"Dr. D!" Shego's voice crescendoed as the scientist continued his rant.

"Kim Possible 30 feet enclosing."

"DRAKKEN!" Shego shouted as loud as she could.

"Shego, please, I can't concentrate with you screaming!" Drakken shouted back.

"Kim Possible 10 feet enclosing."

"What!" Drakken's eyes bulged in shock as he finally noticed the teen hero quickly approaching his lair. "Shego! Why didn't you tell me?"

Shego groaned, choosing not to mention that she had been trying to get his attention the whole time and instead dropped back into her chair with a frustrated grunt.

"Kim Possible will enter lair in 5…4…3…2…"

Precisely on que, the metal doors burst open to reveal Kim and Ron blocking the steady stream of sunlight that now flowed into the lair.

"Kim Possible, what a surprise! Jumping the gun a bit aren't we?" Drakken said, recovering from his anger in time to face his arch foe.

"Beg pardon?" Kim raised her eyebrows in perplexity.

"It's just you usually wait until _after_ Drakken comes up with his ingenious foolproof plot to show up." Shego said sarcastically.

"Well, for once, we aren't here to stop you," Kim said, fully aware of the absurdity of her own words.

Drakken's blood started to boil in frustration. First Commodore Puddles ate his formula for the perfect lemonade, then he ran out of brilliant ideas for world domination, and now Kim Possible was standing in his lair without so much as an excuse!

"Then what are you doing here?" Shego asked, also visibly annoyed.

"We thought we'd just, you know swing by…grab some snackage…" Ron began.

"I have something for you," Kim said with a smirk, normally she didn't toy with people like this. She always preferred to get the job done quickly with no funny business attached. But the frustrated look on Drakken's face was so amusing and fulfilling; she couldn't help but be a little vague just to keep it that way a few minutes longer.

"Since when has my arch foe become my delivery boy….girl…whatever!" Drakken snapped. "Very well, hand it over!"

"Actually, it's for Shego." Kim said reaching into her pocket and grinning at the bewildered looks her two foes were giving her. Shego was the first to recover.

"How sweet," she said sarcastically, "I'd hate to rain on your parade Kimmie but my birthday isn't for three months."

Without a word in reply, Kim tossed a black, fist-sized object towards Shego, who caught it expertly with one hand. For a moment, the entire room was silent; everyone was staring at the black crystal resting in Shego's palm. Noticing the shocked look on his employee's face, Drakken let out an embarrassed cough, "Would you look at the time," he said, glancing at the invisible watch around his wrist, "I still have to walk Commodore Puddles. Better get to it before it gets dark…" just as he turned to leave the room, Shego's arm reached out and grabbed the back of his collar, preventing him from leaving. Shego herself had continued to stare at the rock with a somewhat horrified expression for quite sometime before raising her head to face Kim and Ron.

"Where…exactly…did you find this?" she said in a shaky voice completely foreign to everyone in the room.

"Hego," Kim and Ron said in unison.

"What!" Shego exclaimed, releasing Drakken and the rock to grab hold of Kim's shoulders and shake her violently "Do not lie to me, Kim Possible!"

"Me? Lie?" Kim said, wrestling out of Shego's harsh grip.

"Actually Kim, she does have a point. Remember Halloween?" Ron said.

"Ron…not helping!" Kim said, shuddering at the memory. "Yes, Hego found the rock on his doorstep…with this," she handed Shego the note Hego had received with the crystal. Shego snatched it out of her hands and read it hurriedly. Drakken attempted to peek at the note over her shoulder, but one glare from Shego sent him slinking back towards the door. When her eyes finished running over the page she turned to Kim and Ron.

"Alright, you two….out, NOW!" she shouted.

"But…" Kim began.

Shego's gloves instantly lit up in glowing green flames as her glare deepened. "Uh…you heard her, KP." Ron said, tugging at his friend's arm towards the exit.

"Ron…" Kim began to protest, she didn't want to just deliver the mysterious rock; she wanted some answers. Their visit to Hego had aroused some curiosity within her. What was Shego really like as a kid? Why exactly did she quit Team Go? What was the significance of the stupid rock anyway? Maybe there was a clue in one of those video tapes Hego had given them…

Kim gasped, "Ron, we forgot the videos!"

"You mean the hundred pound boxes we had to drag from Hego's house to the helicopter…I'm glad we forgot them." Ron said.

"Hego gave you what?" Shego asked.

"We'll mail them to you." Ron said, halfway out the door. "Come on, KP! Our ride leaves in fifteen minutes."

Kim suppressed the urge to stay and get some decent answers, only because Ron had a very good point. If they didn't get moving, they would miss their ride. Silently surrendering, she followed Ron out the door.

As soon as it shut, Shego collapsed into the chair she had previously been sitting in and let out a long groan. Drakken approached her with crossed arms, trying to muster up an air of intimidation. "Shego, what is this all about?" he asked, secretly praying she would give a straight answer for once.

"I need to pack," she said, half to herself. She sidestepped Drakken and moved towards the entrance to her half of the lair.

"Pack? For what?"

"I need to leave for awhile. 'An old friend' just asked me to visit."

"That's what this is about? Shego, high school reunions aren't that embarrassing…"

"How would you know? You never went to yours, remember. Besides this has nothing to do with my high school reunion."

"Then where _are_ you going?"

"Aren't you the nosy one? Look, I'll call you when I get there. Just don't track me down or you're a dead man!" She said the last phrase with a hard glare, then left the room, leaving a rather confused scientist alone to ponder the day's events.

**AN: Well, that's it! I was gonna make this chapter longer, but I'm not sure if I should keep or take away a couple scenes yet. Thanx to all the people who reviewed my last chapter!**


	3. Spectacular, Spectacular

**AN: Where have all these months gone? I swear it was only yesterday I started working on this thing and now a whole year has gone by! I do have a (rather lame) excuse for taking an eternity on this chapter though. My computer crashed awhile ago and I ended up having to write this entire chapter twice from scratch! Bloody schoolwork doesn't help either. Eh well, I think it turned out okay despite the setbacks and my corny ideas (heh, you'll see). Now it's time for you to read it and tell me what you think of it.**

Chapter 2: Spectacular, Spectacular

-14 years ago-

Go City homes were usually small, cramped buildings, each one shoved as close as possible to its neighbor so that a large number of houses could be squeezed into the city's ever declining space. The front yards were usually separated by a fence, or in some cases, a small bush or flower bed. Backyards, if the house even had a backyard, were usually nothing more than a small patch of grass before a brick wall separating the rows of houses. However, in the older neighborhoods, houses had been built with quality rather than quantity in mind. Not only were the homes spaced further apart offering more privacy, they also had larger backyards and much more flowers and vegetation. It was in one of these older, more secluded homes where the Gothesamine family lived.

As well as being one of the oldest houses in Go City, the Gothesamine, or Go, residence also sported one of the largest backyards, it's most impressive feature being a massive oak tree in the center of the yard. And in the branches of this oak tree, the Go children had built their tree house.

The idea for the tree house was originally conceived by their father, Leego, who was faced with many a dull weekend and was in search of long-term project and bonding experience with his three children. Well, 5 if you count the infant twins. Their mother, Rachel Go, was convinced someone would fall out of the tree house and break their neck and was against the idea from the start, but her eager husband managed to convince her no one would get hurt.

"Besides, it would be a good experience for them," he had said, "They'll learn the value of owning something they helped build." As corny as the argument seemed, it did have some merit. Once Mrs. Go gave in to Mr. Go's reasoning and the tree house was finally built, there wasn't one member of the family that didn't possess a sense of pride for the wooden house. Everyone seemed to remember exactly which nail they had hammered in, which board they had helped carry up the tree, which section of the walls they had painted. The house had been a group effort, but no one seemed to see it that way. Over time, each child developed a mindset that they had worked the hardest on it, and that the house belonged to them. It quickly became a place of refuge in the Go household. It was a place one could go when they were upset or just wanted to play alone, a difficult task in a family with five children, and it was also the setting for many sleepovers and adventures with friends, who were all envious the Go's had such a huge backyard, much less a tree house. It was also the place where Shego's friend Zeb had chosen to work on his science project.

The project had been assigned over three weeks before hand, but Zeb had always been a bit of a procrastinator. Shego, slightly worried that one of these days their principal would smarten up and get him into some real trouble, finally called him up the weekend before it was due, and, finding he still hadn't started on it, ordered him to march over to her house and finish it there where she could keep an eye on him. Three hours of trying to accomplish anything inside the Go house itself had proved to be fruitless. Their parents were out of town for the week to visit Rachel's father, who had suddenly been struck with a heart attack, so conditions in the house were far from orderly. Hego, being the oldest, was in charge, which didn't bode well with Mego, the next oldest. The two had spent half the time arguing over who would have to do the dishes or mow the lawn or any other chore imaginable in ever increasing decibels, while the 5-year-old twin Wegos played tag, running like wild children in every room in the house. The resulting noise was too much for either Shego or Zeb to hear themselves talk, much less think, so after awhile they moved their project to the secluded tree house.

"Remind me what this thing is supposed to do," Shego muttered as she tried to climb the ladder up the tree house with one hand supporting a rather bulky piece of metal.

From further up the ladder she heard a frustrated sigh, as if he had explained it a thousand times, "It's supposed to take a beam of white light and separate it into individual beams of color..."

"I know _that_!" she spat, shifting her weight so she could ascend the next step. "I meant, how is this hunk of junk gonna do that, don't you just need a piece of glass?" She heard Zeb pause, as if thinking of a proper retort to her statement. Shego picked impatiently at a loose thread on her green tee-shirt. The shirt had been picked solely because it matched her vibrant green eyes, and was actually quite becoming of a girl of fourteen years.

"A piece of glass would make a rainbow, we want the colors separate," Zeb's voice finally replied, yanking on the top of the hunk of metal in question until it lifted out of Shego's hands and into the doorway of the tree house. Zeb was a thin, almost lanky boy, with hair that almost always hung in his face and a pair of mischievous, brown eyes. He and Shego had met one day in elementary school when she had unwittingly saved him from a group of older bullies by pelting one with a soccer ball and breaking his nose. They had been the best of friends ever since.

"Why?" Shego asked, pulling herself up the last step and into the tree house along with the project, "who cares if you can separate light waves?"

"You're the one who dragged me down here," Zeb rolled his eyes at her, "I asked you if you had any better ideas…"

"Science isn't my thing," she interrupted, "Come to think of it; science isn't your thing either. Where'd you get this thing?" She tapped the top of the metal casing inquisitively while Zeb opened the back hatch to continue working on the inside.

"Remember that summer my mom sent me to camp?" he said, reaching inside the pockets of his faded jeans to pull out a thick wad of papers.

"Yeah…" Shego replied, moving to sit down on the overstuffed loveseat in the corner of the tree house.

"Well," Zeb brushed a piece of his sandy brown hair out of his eyes and continued to spread out the sheets of paper, "I met a guy there who was into these kinds of science experiments; he built a machine like this one day just because he was bored and needed something to do! I thought it looked pretty cool, so I asked if I could keep it, for film effects and stuff," he looked up at Shego and she nodded. One of Zeb's passions had always been filmmaking; it allowed him to put his creative, scheming nature to good use. They had spent many boring summers writing up screenplays and acting them out. Though they both had grown out of the acting part, Zeb still enjoyed filming and had aspired to be a director someday.

"So, you're basically taking your science project from some braniac you met at camp and modifying it?" Shego said, picking up a magazine and lazily flipping through its pages.

"Pretty much," Zeb replied without hesitation. Shego wasn't the least bit surprised. Zeb was one of those people who preferred to take the easy way out of everything. Normally she enjoyed his devil-may-care attitude, but sometimes it got in the way of things. "Can you hand me that wrench-thingy?" Zeb said, pointing to the tool case he had left at the doorway of the tree house.

Shego sighed, got up off the loveseat, and retrieved the tool for her friend. "You're gonna get busted for this you know," she said matter-of-factly.

"For what, he gave me permission to use his project…" Zeb pulled his hands out of the machine and took the tool from Shego.

"And there is no way Ms. Hazard is gonna believe that. I seem to recall a certain someone who had her wig and spectacles glued to the fake skeleton in the front of lab room. The same someone who decorated her car with snails and gummy worms. The same someone who she's been waiting to expel for the past semester. She's gonna take one look at this hunk of junk and fail you on the spot… Zeb, are you listening?" She put her hands on her hips in frustration, her green eyes fixed on the back of his brown head.

"Yup," he replied, not bothering to look up.

"Liar." She said, almost mechanically. She hated it when he got like this, too carefree and ignorant to listen to her reasoning, too set on putting himself in a position where he was bound to get into trouble, and Zeb was one of those people who attracted trouble like a magnet, or perhaps trouble attracted him. Of course, Shego was always there, the accomplice, the partner in crime, the one who went along with everything because he was her best friend… her only friend.

"You know, Zeb," she continued, "sometimes I wish you'd take life a little more seriously."

"You mean like you," he said, looking back at her with a wide grin. Shego paused, not quite sure how to respond.

Zeb stood up and dusted his hands on his jeans, though there wasn't any real dust on them to speak of. "Well, it just needs the final ingredient," he stated proudly.

"And what would that be? A self-destruct button?"

"Enough with your sarcasm," Zeb glared, bending down to pick up one of the sheets of paper he had spread on the floor earlier, "according to this, it needs something to reflect the light off of. The guy at camp used a jewel from a ring."

"A ring? Where'd he get a ring?" Shego snorted.

Zeb shrugged, "I have no idea. That's what he wrote on the paper, so I'm assuming that's what he used."

"Alright, fine," Shego said, backing towards the door, "I'll just raid my mom's jewelry box."

"You sure about that?" Zeb said, "Won't she get mad?"

"Why are you being so considerate all of a sudden? My parent's aren't coming back for at least another week, and besides, she's got so much crammed in the jewelry box of hers she won't miss one."

"Well, if you think its okay…"

"Just as long as you finish this project!" Shego said, dropping from the ladder to the grass below.

----------

Shego raced hurriedly to the ladder of the tree house. It had gotten dark and had started to rain while she was digging through her mother's hoard of jewelry, looking for the thing she'd miss the least. She finally settled on a necklace with a thin, sliver chain and a black jewel the size of a quarter. Rachel had found it on the street one day, so if anything happened to it, she shouldn't be too upset. Then again she did tend to overreact; it was one of the few traits she had passed on to her daughter.

Shego clutched the prize in one hand and brushed a lock of wet, black hair out of her face with the other. "I got it!" she called up the ladder to the doorway, slightly illuminated by a dim lamp inside. She could vaguely make out the shape of Zeb's head as he looked out the door at her.

"It's about time!" he yelled back. "I was beginning to think you drowned!"

"Ha ha, very funny," Shego said sarcastically while trying to climb the wet ladder as quickly as she could without slipping. Zeb stretched out his hand as soon as she was close enough and pulled her up the rest of the way. As soon as she was inside the dry comforts of the tree house, she made a show of wringing out her soaked hair and shaking it violently, like a wet dog trying to dry itself off.

"Hey, knock it off!" Zeb laughed as he backed away from the shower of water droplets flying from his friend's wet hair.

Shego stopped a few moments later and brushed her hair back with a satisfied smirk. Her hair, still a little limp from the rain, had gained back some of its volume and stuck out comically in a few places. Looking at it was enough to make Zeb smile. Shego had once confided in him how much she had hated her hair. Her mother had a head of the most vibrant, golden hair anyone had ever seen, and Shego was born with limp, black locks that she had obviously gotten from her father. Shego had begged her mother to dye, or at least cut her hair, but her pleas were met with stern refusal. As the years went by, her hair and grown much thicker and had even developed a cute wave to it, making her resemble Rachel Go ever so slightly. Shego was well aware of this fact and had grown rather vain of her hair, not that anyone blamed her.

"What are you grinning at?" Shego asked, snapping her fingers in front of Zeb's face to get his attention.

Zeb shook himself slightly to break his train of thought, "Nothing," he replied. "Let's get this thing started up."

The sliver chain was removed from the necklace and the stone itself was thrust into its place in the machine rather unceremoniously. Zeb slammed the door shut and walked to the control panel on the other side of the machine. "Well, here goes nothing," he said quietly before pressing a large, red button in the center of the machine.

Both teens held their breath for a moment, silently waiting for the machine to make the next move. Nothing happened.

"Well, that's impressive," Shego muttered, breaking the air of anticipation with her trademark sarcasm.

Zeb glared at her, "Well, do you have any bright ideas on how to fix it?"

"No, I don't have a clue on how this thing works."

"Well, it's not like I know how it works either."

"What do you mean you don't know how it works? You built it!"

"Correction: modified it by following directions written by the next Einstein!"

The two continued their banter, their voices straining to reach a slightly higher volume than the other till their words became an obnoxious jumble of sound. Suddenly, their argument was stopped by a high-pitched squeal. They both clamped their hands over their ears and looked toward the machine, which had suddenly come to life with the annoying shriek. A cylinder lifted out of the center of the machine and began to spin, slowly at first, then quickly accelerating. Before Shego or Zeb realized what was going on, several faint streams of light poured from several holes cut in the spinning cylinder.

Shego's eyes widened in amazement. She had never actually expected that reject coffeemaker to do anything, save blow itself up. The effect the machine produced was something like a disco ball, each color bouncing off the walls in an individual beam of light. Red, blue, orange, purple, indigo, yellow, and green, each beam stronger than the last till the entire tree house was washed in color. Shego broke her gaze on the machine to turn to her friend, who was in a similar state of disbelief. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could let a word out, a blast of energy shot out from the machine and barreled straight through the opposing wall. Zeb and Shego let out identical yelps of surprise and recoiled away from the machine, their eyes wide with horror. The lights shut off as soon as the blast erupted from it, and the machine sat there, exactly the same as the moment before it had been turned on. The tree house, however, hadn't fared so well. The blast had left a charred and gaping hole where one of the walls had once been, and the blast had also left a neat little trail in between the leaves of the oak tree, marking its journey to the now pouring sky.

"What was that?" Shego demanded.

"I… I…I'm not sure," Zeb stammered, still gaping in shock.

"What do you mean you're not sure? That machine of yours just took out half a wall!"

A sharp knock rattled the door of the tree house. "Shego? What happened? What's going on in there?" a deep voice demanded.

"Quit banging on the door, Hego, you'll break it!" Shego snapped.

The door flew open in response, and four wet figures tumbled into the tree house, nearly knocking over Zeb's project. Hego, a strong, massive boy of seventeen, looked around the tree house with obvious shock and horror.

"What did you do?" he exclaimed, though the question was directed more at Zeb than Shego. They had all gotten accustomed to the fact that Zeb was a bit of a troublemaker, and all the practical jokes he and Shego had managed to pull over the years were almost always the product of his imagination. Mego had been known to pull a few pranks of his own, but where Mego did it for attention, Zeb did it for his own, quiet enjoyment. Hego and Mego, who were often victims of Zeb's mischief, disliked and distrusted him, while the young twins, both called Wego since they were always within two feet of one another, generally followed the opinions of their older brothers.

"Dad is gonna ground you for a…"

"Shut up, Mego! It's not like it's our fault!" Shego interrupted her older brother.

"Then whose fault is it, Shego?" Hego replied sternly, looking down at her with an air of authority.

"It certainly wasn't mine," Mego replied, finding a way to spin a conversation towards him, as always.

"Zeb, I think it's about time you went home," Hego said, giving him a look dangerously close to a glare.

"Dad said he could stay as long as wanted," Shego protested.

"Well Dad's not here right now. I'm in charge, and I say it's time for him to leave!" Hego's voice shook the battered tree house. Shego stood firm, her eyes fixed in a harsh glare towards her brother. She opened her mouth to defy him again, but Zeb stopped her.

"I think I'd better go before my mom calls up Missing Persons again," Zeb said with a snicker, it was meant as a joke but no one laughed. "I'll see ya tomorrow, Shego." He gave her a playful wink, and then moved towards the door.

"Do you want me to go with you," Shego replied, silently wishing she could make him stay, just to defy her brother. "It's not the best weather for walking alone."

"I'll be fine." Zeb said quickly, opening the door to be met with pelting raindrops. He pulled his jacket over his head and disappeared through the doorway and into the night.

"Now why did you have to make him go out in the rain like that?" Shego snapped as soon as Zeb was gone from view, "You could've at least given him an umbrella!"

"He's the one who didn't have the sense to bring one. It's only been raining for the past three nights!" Hego replied.

"I can't believe what you guys did to this wall! This was the wall I was going to put all my basketball trophies on!" Mego whined.

"Mego, for once, this is not about you!" Shego spat, her annoyance reaching an optimum height.

"It's about that friend of yours, Shego," Hego said, taking on the air of a lecturing parent. "He's always getting into to trouble, he has no respect for authority…"

"You aren't my father, Hego! Quit acting like it!"

"For the last time, while Mom and Dad are gone, I'm in charge!"

"See," Mego said to no one in particular, "this is exactly why Dad should've left me in charge."

"This isn't about you!" Hego and Shego yelled in unison.

Mego slumped his shoulders in a silent pout and decided he'd be better off following the twin's example and watch the conversation silently. Not that much of the conversation was discernible after that. Hego wasn't the argumentative type, but when he got into an argument, he was determined to finish it, and Shego was one of those people whose knack for starting arguments might as well have been a God-given talent. Needless to say, both siblings were more than determined to fight this particular quarrel out to the bitter end. Mego silently hoped that this argument didn't end the same way the last one did; with Hego's fist through a wall and a large mark on his shin in the shape of Shego's sneakers. Luckily, the argument was interrupted rather quickly by the mysterious interventions of the weather, or perhaps it was some accident of fate; a loud blast of thunder echoed through the tree house, silencing the two siblings.

The Wegos, who decided right then and there they'd had enough of loud noises, began to whimper, clutching each other for support. Mego was overtaken with a sudden chill and sneezed, wrapping his arms around his torso in an effort to keep warm. Hego and Shego maintained sharp glares at each other but didn't speak. A flash of lightning soon followed the thunder, causing the Wegos to let out a terrified screech. Hego walked over to them and put a comforting hand on each of their shoulders. "It's getting late," he said quietly, "I think we all should get to bed." The Wegos nodded in agreement and rushed to the door. Hego, Mego, and Shego filed behind them silently; Shego taking one last look at the piece of metal that caused this whole mess.

"What was Zeb thinking?" she muttered to herself as she climbed down the ladder.

"What was that?" Hego asked, a slight tone of accusation in his voice.

"Nothing." Shego replied.

"Uh, guys, what on earth is that?" Mego said, pointing a terrified finger at the sky behind them. The five children gasped in collective horror. Rocketing straight for them was a giant ball of colored light, steadily flashing blue, purple, green, and red. It was frightening, yet almost hypnotic in beauty. The five siblings ignored their sudden impulse to run like mad in sheer amazement of the wonder before them. There was a certain inexplicable power in the light that they all sensed, though none of them could even begin to understand what it was exactly. It held them where they were for a moment, their eyes and minds completely focused on the ball of energy hurtling towards them. Hego was the first to snap out of his reverie and scream, "Quick! Run to the house!" The other four obliged half-heartedly, part of them washed with a sense of panic and the other part with a sense of awe. As the ball of light got closer and closer to them, their steps became more hurried and panicked until finally they were all sprinting to beat the falling wonder to their house.

Shego looked at the stretch of grass still between her and the house and turned to look at the advancing threat. Her heart leaped into her throat, "We're not gonna make it…" she screamed. Though they all wished they could've disagreed with her, she couldn't have been more right.

-Present Day-

Shego's cell phone went off a dozen times during her flight. She rolled her eyes, "What part of 'I'll call you when I get there' did he not understand," she said to herself. She knew it was Drakken; he had been screaming her name over and over mere minutes after she started packing. In order to avoid him, she had to escape out one of the lair's windows and catch a ride to the nearest airport instead of using the hover car. It wasn't the way she preferred to leave, but he had left her no choice.

Frustrated, she turned the phone off and shoved it deep inside her backpack where it would no longer cause her annoyance. Her nerves were already on edge, more so than usual anyway. The sudden appearance of the crystal had aroused painful memories within her, memories she had long ago buried deep within herself, memories she still didn't wish to visit. Her mind drifted back to her brother. _"I wonder what he told them…"_ she thought to herself. A slight blush crept onto her cheeks as she thought of all the embarrassing stories and photos Hego could've given them concerning her childhood. Kim would have enough ammunition to mock her for the rest of her life. Sighing, she leaned back in her chair and attempted to relax. It was going to be a long flight, and besides, she was gonna need all the rest she could get.

----------

Kim rolled out of bed with a pleasant sigh. She had slept quite well for flying around the country in less then 24 hours. Her body had become accustomed to constant traveling and she had slept well that night, as usual. Still slightly drowsy, she rubbed her eyes as her feet carried her into the bathroom. One splash of cold water instantly shook all feelings of lethargy from her. She slowly wiped her face with a towel, basking in the softness of its texture. And suddenly, she froze.

"What is that?" she breathed, her eyes fixed on her reflection in the mirror. Several faint, slightly yellow lines sprouted from one point on her upper arm and spiraled out in an intricate pattern on her skin. "Maybe I popped a blood vessel?" she thought, dismissing the fact that her hero work had been pretty light lately, with the exception of yesterday's "mission". "Oh well, I guess I won't be wearing a tank top today," her own words made her grimace. It was already becoming quite warm, but she couldn't risk her parents freaking out over a silly little mark on her shoulder.

She half-ran to her closet and anxiously tore through her wardrobe trying to find a shirt with sleeves just long enough to cover the mark without making her melt in the heat. She had finally selected a thin blue top that she hadn't worn in a long while because of an unattractive stain from a ketchup incident over a year ago. She reluctantly began pulling the shirt over her head when her Kimmunicator went off. The noise startled her for some reason, and she let out a loud yelp.

"Kimmie, everything okay in there?" her mother said through the shut door.

"Fine, Mom!" Kim shouted, yanking her arms through the sleeves of her top and diving over her bed to get to the Kimmunicator on the other side of the room. "Go, Wade!" she exclaimed as soon as the face of her teammate appeared on the screen.

"Kim, you'll never guess…what happened to you?" Wade interrupted himself.

Kim looked down. She was quite a sight, dressed in an old, stained shirt and pajama pants, her hair was probably messy and she hadn't gotten a chance to put on make-up yet. "You kinda caught me at the wrong time. I just got up," she explained hurriedly.

"Well…have you seen the news yet?" Wade said, returning to the original purpose of his call.

"Nope. Just got up…" Kim repeated, anxious to hear what the sitch was.

"This clip just came in from Paris. Here, I'll upload it for you." Several clicks later, an image of a suave French news anchor appeared on the Kimmunicator's screen, hurriedly spitting out words that Kim couldn't understand. One moment later, the image changed to a bustling Parisian street filled with tour buses and cars and people swarming into various buildings. Even though it was quite dark, the various street lights and flaming neon signs illuminated the image so she had very little trouble making out the various signs plastered over doors and windows. Unfortunately she knew very little French, so the words "Place Clichy" and "Féerie" meant absolutely nothing to her. The camera panned to the left, revealing two more tall buildings and, sandwiched between them, a quaint windmill, looking rather odd standing on the flat roof of another building. Kim felt her heart leap into her throat… the windmill was painted red.

An illuminated sign in front of the spinning windmill read "Moulin Rouge", and the building underneath it sported a huge poster reading "Féerie: La Nouvelle Revue du Moulin Rouge" (A/N: I'm not totally sure, but I think it means "A Fairy Tale: The New Show at the Red Mill" or something to that effect.) To the right of the windmill was the main entrance where people swarmed out, chattering excitedly. The building, obviously the heart of the Moulin Rouge, was slightly taller than the actual windmill and not nearly as beautiful to look at. Its rows of straight, square windows made it look somewhat like a warehouse rather than a world-renown cabaret.

Out of nowhere, one of the windmill's small, lighted windows erupted in a wave of blinding green light, the shattered glass spilling onto the street below. Panic ensued among the crowd. Thousands of people scattering like ants backed as far away as they could from the dance hall. Another wave of green light, this one punching a hole out of the windmill's roof, sent an already delicate situation into state of utter chaos. Ear-shattering screams were heard as the windmill burst into flames, this time not an eerie green shade, but a more natural blazing orange. It wasn't long before the entire windmill, its veins still turning, was completely consumed in flames. The camera moved from the burning dance hall to the immense chaos on the streets below. Cars honked, mobs raced in different directions as pieces of the burning roof fell onto the street. The video was cut short by a wave of static, and then Wade appeared once again.

"Pretty bad, huh?" Wade said quietly.

"Bad! Wade, Shego blew up the Moulin Rouge!" she caught her breath, hardly believing it herself. "Shego blew up the Red Windmill…"

**AN: So, this chapter turned out to be a lot more focused on Shego's past since I spent the entire last chapter talking about Kim and Ron's (soon to be Shego and Drakken's) adventure in the present. Though this whole story has developed a sort of random, jumping-back-and-forth-between-scenes-thing, I like it cuz it allows me to show you exactly what I want you to know exactly when I want you to know it (brainfreeze!) thus building more suspense than if I did it chronologically.**

**And the Red Windmill in the letter was the Moulin Rouge after all. I know, I know, putting the Moulin Rouge in a KP story was a pretty corny idea, to say the least. I was actually wracking my brain for quite some time trying to come up with a better setting, but the whole story kinda flowed from there and I found its historical and symbolic significance quite appropriate, ( I hear it's a perfectly respectable cabaret despite its past and wicked reputation) so I kept it. I'm only gonna use it for a couple more scenes anyways, so if your one of those people reading this and thinking, "Has this chick totally lost it?" I assure you I'm quite sane, please bear with me. As far as the 2001 movie by the same name goes, this story has absolutely nothing to do with it. I hadn't actually seen the movie till after I started writing this thing (yes, I have been working on this a long time, lol) I may throw in some references to the movie (like the title of this chapter), just cuz I think they're fun, but don't be expecting a KP/Moulin Rouge crossover. Not gonna touch that one with a 39 ½ foot pole! **

**And since I'm on the subject of corny ideas, I realize Zeb's science project was pretty lame, but it was the best I could come up with in light of the circumstances. In case you couldn't tell, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to science, so if I haven't lost you yet, be prepared for more crazy, bizarre, made up theories that could never, ever happen in the real world.**

**I think I'm done ranting now, so a big THANK YOU to everyone who reviewed my last chapter!**


	4. A Bouquet of Lilies

**A/N: What's this? An update from me? (gasp) And on April Fool's Day to boot. We'll this isn't an April fool's joke, I assure you. I highly doubt you'll get a laugh out of any of this. I should probably do something shorter and more humorous in the future, once this is finally done. I will finish this fic! No matter how long it takes I will finish! (steps off soapbox) On with the show…**

Chapter 3: A Bouquet of Lilies

Kim and Ron arrived in Paris without further incident and met up with Cristophe Domoulin, the head of the French sector of Global Justice, who drove them to the famous cabaret while giving them an update on the news report they had seen earlier. The building itself was relatively untouched; it was the windmill that had suffered damage. There were two charred, gaping holes, one facing the street where a window used to be, and a much larger one near the top of the windmill's pointed roof facing away from the street. Inside the windmill's walls sported a series of long, thin scratches, as if someone had sharpened the ends of a rake and dug them into the windmill's walls while running up the winding staircase leading to the rooftop. The holes themselves were also a bit perplexing. There was nothing inside the windmill that might have caused a fire, unless someone had gotten inside with a flamethrower there was no possible explanation for them. Add that to the mysterious green light that had accompanied the flames and the authorities were completely baffled.

The teen hero, however, was not. "The person you're looking for, M. Domoulin is a woman named Shego." The car rolled to a stop in front of the icon they had been discussing and Kim stepped out onto the sidewalk.

"She-who?" Domoulin climbed out of the car and turned towards Kim with a look of perplexity.

"Not She_who_, She_go_." Ron explained, "Works for a mad scientist, wanted in eleven countries, long black hair, glowing green hands…"

"Green hands!" the Inspector's moustache twisted into a grimace.

"It's a long story." Kim explained. "But the green light, the scratch marks, they all point to her."

"But why would this Shego person want to destroy the Moulin Rouge?"

"Well, we're not exactly sure why…" Kim continued, "But we do know she was coming to a 'red windmill'."

"And how do you know this?" Domoulin prodded, not thoroughly convinced. Kim went on to explain the mysterious note they had been asked to deliver along with their previous relations with the villainess while Domoulin's face became more humorously twisted. "Miss Possible, I think this case would be best left to professionals, not…"

"Hey, Kim knows what she's talking about," Ron protested, getting a little too close to Domoulin's face then is considered polite.

"Erm… of course, uh… what was your name again?" Domoulin asked.

"Ron Stoppable," he grumbled. He had figured Domoulin didn't like him, the way he had looked at him while eating the last of his French fries in the car was proof enough of that. But why must everyone forget his name?

"So, is there any chance of us getting to check out the windmill from the inside?" Kim asked hopefully. Usually people were more than happy to let her get a first-hand look at the crime scene, but they hadn't been asked to come here, Wade had had to pull a few strings to convince Domoulin that Kim's assistance would be worthwhile, and Domoulin seemed reluctant to even listen to the teenager.

"Absolutely not!" he bellowed. "The staircase is weak and unstable. We almost had a concussion earlier when a _professional_ went to investigate," he had accented the word "professional", much to the annoyance of the two teens.

"So what was the whole point in coming here? We already know what this thing looks like," Ron said, he had seen it once on a family vacation and again on the news.

Domoulin waved him off, "It is much too dangerous to go inside the windmill. You may go inside the building or talk to any of the personnel present. I have matters to attend to back at GJ…"

"We'll need a translator," Kim pointed out. Her dislike of the man had grown considerably during their conversation, but she wasn't going to take the chance if none of the police officers spoke English.

Domoulin let out a huge sigh. "Very well, I'll stay and translate… but only for half an hour, then we must leave."

Kim marched towards a friendly looking policeman patrolling the entrance to the main building and began asking him questions, which Domoulin translated hurriedly. The man had little to add to what Domoulin had already told them, except that there had been one injury. A woman was found lying on the roof of the building at the foot of the windmill with several ugly gashes on her right forearm. Some suspected she must've jumped from one of the windows on the upper floor of the cabaret, though no one could explain why she jumped towards the burning windmill rather than away from it. The man who found her was of a questionable mental state. He claimed that he heard a scream and when he got to the roof and found the unconscious woman he looked up to see another figure crouched on top of the windmill, her hair blowing with the wind and smoke and her hands lit with green fire.

----------

"KP, this thing's just getting weirder by the minute," Ron remarked. They both were seated at a small café, sipping _limonade_, which turned out to be closer to a Sprite than lemonade. They had tried getting into the hospital that had emitted the injured woman so they could talk to her, but by the time they had her room number one of the nurses informed them in broken English that she had vanished earlier that morning. The doctors were less concerned about her cuts, which had been stitched and bandaged, and more concerned about the fact that her skin was an odd shade of green.

"How can Shego be both the victim and the attacker?" Kim asked.

"There could be more than one person with green skin, y'know," Ron pointed out. "Actually Shego's skin isn't exactly green, more of a greenish tint."

"Next you're gonna say there could be more than one person with power to summon green energy from her hands," Kim said, half joking.

Ron shrugged, "Hey, you never know," he replied, finishing off his drink with a loud slurp. He paused and his eyes widened in surprise, "Kim, is that who I think it is?"

Kim turned in her seat and followed Ron's pointed finger to a flower shop across the street. A woman with long dark hair with several grey streaks was walking out of the shop with a handful of lilies clutched in between her hideously long nails. Kim gasped, "What is Feliah Morgan doing here?"

"And more importantly, why is she buying lilies? She doesn't seem like the flowery type." Rufus nodded in agreement.

Kim's eyes followed the woman closely as she walked down the street, her head erect, her previously fluid movements stiff and forced, the poor lilies looked ready to snap under her harsh grip. "I don't think they're for her, Ron," she said slowly.

Ron looked from Feliah, to Kim, and back to Feliah again. "Then who are they for?" He couldn't imagine a woman as creepy as Feliah having any kind of love interest, unless…

"I'm not sure," Kim said, leaning out of her chair so she could see the woman retreat around a corner.

"You wanna follow her?" Ron asked, sensing Kim's curiosity.

"Ron, whatever she's doing is none of our business," Kim said, turning away from the street to face her friend. "Besides, we have enough to worry about already."

"But you wanna know where she's going? Don't you?" Ron said, now obviously teasing her.

"Well, I'm certainly curious, but…" Kim stammered.

"But what? We're not doing anything interesting. We might as well," Ron stood up and motioned for Kim to do the same.

"Well…I suppose if it's just to see where she's going…"

"Great let's go!" Ron grabbed Kim by the wrist and yanked her out of her seat.

"Ron! The drinks!"

Ron skidded to a stop, "Oh right," he dug into his pants pocket and dropped a bill on the table.

"And remember," Kim said, "we can't let her catch us. I don't think you want to explain to Feliah why we're stocking her."

"No worries, KP. I am the king of stealth!" Ron struck a heroic pose on the sidewalk that emitted a giggle and an eyeroll from his companion.

"Alright, Your Highness, let's hurry before she gets away," she grabbed Ron's wrist and sped off in the direction Feliah had headed.

They stopped running just before reaching the corner Feliah had disappeared behind. Kim motioned for Ron to keep quiet and peered around the corner. She could see the woman's shrinking form much further down the street. Not wanting to lose sight of her, Kim whipped out her hairdryer and shot the grapple hook at one of the buildings along the sidewalk. Grabbing Ron's hand, she swung onto the roof of the building and the pair proceeded to trail Feliah from above.

She eventually stopped in front of a large cathedral. Kim and Ron, stationed on the roof of a building across the street peered after her, puzzled. Feliah marched, not into the cathedral, but into the door of an iron gate surrounding the cemetery next to it. Kim and Ron didn't move from their position till Feliah emerged once more, her head still held high, the bouquet of lilies gone. When she had vanished around a corner, Kim and Ron dropped from their posts and raced across the street to the cemetery. It didn't take long to find which tomb Feliah had visited. The cemetery was obviously relatively unused. Every plant in the vicinity was on the verge of death themselves, except for the few fresh lilies Feliah had deposited next to one particular gravestone.

Kim read the headstone solemnly, "Mariah Morgan. 1967-1997. Car accident." The abruptness of the gravestone seemed terrible to Kim. Had this woman really done nothing in the thirty years she lived worth mentioning? She shuddered. The very air seemed to suddenly turn cold and dry, lifeless. The place on her arm where she had found the mark earlier seemed particularly starved for warmth and she began to rub it vigorously.

"Hey, KP, look at this," Ron said, his tone solemn but still managed to break the lifeless atmosphere around them. Ron had a way of doing that. Things just always seemed brighter when he was around. She bent down next to him to look at the piece of paper lying next to the lilies. A note was written in red ink with a smooth, careful hand, the letters standing out strikingly against the white lilies. Kim's blood ran cold when she read the words:

"_I will avenge you."_

----------

Shego raced into an alleyway and skidded to a stop. She had been dodging the hospital personnel and various police officers all day. She thought she had finally eluded them, but when she caught sight of Possible and company sitting at a café her nerves snapped and she ran. The last thing she needed on a day like this was a fight with Kim. She leaned up against the wall and panted for breath. Try as she might her heart wouldn't stop pounding. It wasn't like her to get tired this easily. She had spent most of her energy trying to avoid detection. Normally it would've been easy for her to blend in, maybe a bit of makeup to cover the green tint in her skin if she was feeling especially cautious, but now…

She relaxed her leg muscles and slid down the wall till she was in a comfortable sitting position. Almost mechanically she rolled up the sleeve on her right arm, revealing a thick bandage running from her wrist to her elbow. It had been bandaged well enough, but the cuts were deep and the gauze had soaked up so much blood it now showed in a series of thin, vertical red stains across the bandage. Four of them.

The villainess moaned, more out of hopelessness than physical pain. Her arm had stopped hurting hours ago, either that or she was used to it, but now she was faced with the dilemma of what to do next. What could she do next? Her skin was already several shades greener. She couldn't count on authorities to help her; they'd only make it worse. And now Possible and the gang were involved, or at least she assumed. What else could explain their presence in Paris the day after she had nearly gotten herself killed? The Moulin Rouge was one tourist attraction she wasn't going to visit again any time soon.

A small noise, sounding somewhat like several pebbles knocking against each other, jostled her out of her thoughts. Her senses snapped into full alertness as her eyes scanned the alleyway. She rose from her seated position as slowly and quietly as she could and assumed a fighting stance. Her gaze drifted toward the edge of the alleyway where out from behind a building poked the edge of a rather familiar black boot.

Shego relaxed her fighting stance and let out a sigh of relief. "You can come out now, Dr. Drakken," she said as calmly as she could.

-14 years ago-

"Zeb! Open this door!" Shego pounded her fist against the front door of her best friend's house, "Zeb, I know you're in there!" she shouted, causing enough mayhem to wake the dead, or the next best thing, a sleeping fourteen-year-old boy.

She saw the light go on in Zeb's mother's room overhead and heard her scraggly voice shout in a similar fashion for her son to answer the door. A few moments later, the door swished open to reveal Zeb rubbing his eyes, his hair sticking out in more places than it usually did. It was still raining and a bit of water dripped from the door onto the rug inside.

"What are you doing? Do you have any idea what time it is?" Zeb groaned.

"This is an emergency!" Shego said, lowering her volume only slightly. "Our house just got flattened by some kind of meteor!"

Zeb's half-sleeping eyes slowly got wider and wider. "It what? Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure! You think I'd be mistaken when a giant glowing rock comes crashing out of the sky and bulldozes my house!"

After a short pause Zeb looked up at her almost thoughtfully and said, "You wanna come out of the rain?" while opening the door wider. Shego suddenly noticed the water dripping from her limp hair down the back of her shirt and shivered. She stepped inside, for once grateful that Zeb's mom insisted on keeping the house unusually warm at all hours. "So, have you called your parents?" he asked quickly.

"Not yet. Hego's at the neighbors calling 911 or something. That moron! I told him I refused to be dragged off to some testing facility, but he wouldn't listen, so I decided to come here."

"Wait, a testing facility? What are you talking about?"

"The meteor… it did something to us," she began. "Instead of two Wegos running all over the place there's twenty, last time we counted anyways. We can't find Mego anywhere. Hego lifted the Moreno's entire house with one hand looking for him. And I'm…" she stopped and looked down at the palms of her hands.

"You're what?" Zeb asked, looking incredibly confused.

"That's weird, I could do it five minutes ago," she said, staring awkwardly into her hands as if willing them to do something.

"What? Do what?" Zeb raised his voice in frustration.

"My hands lit up with this green stuff. It nearly blew a piece of Hego's hair off earlier."

Zeb chuckled. "Sounds cool."

"No, not cool," Shego turned from her hands to staring at Zeb, "this is the worst thing to happen since…since,"

"…since the invention of spam?" Zeb offered.

Shego glared at him. "How can you be so nonchalant about this? Our house is gone, my brothers and I have been turned into some kind of freaks…"

"You don't look freakish to me," Zeb replied calmly.

As if on cue, Shego's hands erupted in a blast of green light. Zeb recoiled and ended up falling backwards onto the floor, his eyes wide and mouth agape. Shego stood with her hands as far from her body as humanly possible, her eyes dancing with the reflection of the dangerous green flame. After a moment she relaxed a bit, bringing her hands closer to her body as the flame died down somewhat. Zeb stood, his eyes still as wide and round as a saucer, and stepped towards her.

"Now _that_ looks freaky," he said in awe.

-Present Day-

"How did you know…?" Drakken began, stepping out from his hiding place to face his employee.

"A ninja you're not." Shego replied curtly. He did look rather odd standing in the middle of a dank alley in his normal blue lab coat and wearing a pair of sunglasses and an oversized hat. It would've been almost funny if it weren't for the fact that he'd obviously been trailing her. "What are you doing here? I specifically asked you not to follow me," she crossed her arms, now obviously annoyed.

"I need to know what's going on, Shego. Earlier you seemed… upset." Drakken started to fumble, as if searching for the right word.

"Upset?" Shego spat the word out as if she'd never heard it before.

"Yeah, and now I find you in Europe burning down old cabarets and…" his eyes fell on her arm. "You're hurt."

Instinctively, Shego yanked her sleeve back over her arm, covering up the bandage. "It's… it's nothing," she said quickly.

"Come now, Shego, you don't expect me to believe that old line, do you?" It was Drakken's turn to cross his arms.

"Yes… well, no, but… ARG! Let's just get out of here," Shego grabbed the doctor's wrist and proceeded to drag him down the alley to the street.

With a twist of his wrist, Drakken managed to pull away from her grasp. "No, Shego, until you fill me in on exactly what is going on, I'm not moving from this spot!" He stomped the ground underneath him, squishing a small leaf under his heel, to emphasize his point. Shego fixed her eyes with his in a harsh glare, as if she was testing him. He faltered at first but returned her glare with intense determination. Minutes ticked off as the two squared off in complete silence, forcing themselves not to let up, not to blink, or twitch, or falter and be forced to consent to the other's will.

Finally, Shego relaxed her gaze and turned away. "Fine," she muttered. Drakken's mouth stretched into a smug grin of triumph. "You can just stay here."

And with a sharp turn Shego marched out into the street, leaving Drakken in the deserted alleyway, his smug grin twisted into a defeated frown. He had lost. "Aw, doodles!" he kicked a pebble against a wall and it ricocheted further down the alley and disappeared into the shadow of the building.

Drakken heard it clack against something metallic, and not a moment later, two small golden lights appeared casting an eerie orange glow about half a foot in diameter. The glow gave Drakken chills and he shuddered despite himself. The two lights were at least five and a half feet off the ground; they couldn't have been from a cat or some other animal. And whatever it was making the glow was very well concealed, as the sun was still out and the shadow should've been faint, yet nothing was distinguishable other than the orange orbs. _"They look like eyes,"_ Drakken thought to himself. The lights disappeared for a split second then came back, as if they were blinking. His heart skipped a beat. They _were_ eyes!

"Is… is anyone there?" Drakken asked nervously, but the shadows gave no reply. "Hello? Anyone? Shego?" Saying the familiar name seemed reassuring to Drakken and he repeated it a little louder. "Shego?" Still no answer.

_"She's just trying to play a trick on me,"_ Drakken said to himself. _"She's just getting back at me for following her."_ Somehow, the thought wasn't reassuring. Drakken bit his lower lip nervously. He hadn't moved from his designated spot and had no intention of moving, but the eyes, or whatever they were, seemed to be getting closer.

Something grabbed Drakken's shoulder, making him jump and let out a yelp. He whirled around, his arm whacking something in the process. He heard a familiar grunt followed by a "Watch it!"

Never in his life had Drakken been so relieved to see the green villainess glare at him, it almost didn't matter that she smacked him across the cheek as punishment for his clumsiness. After all, he knew from experience that getting zapped with her green glow was much worse.

"Now let's get out of here for real," Shego said, "and I mean it this time." She grabbed the collar of his shirt, rather than his wrist and started a second attempt at dragging her boss out of the alley.

"But Shego, the glowing eyes…"

"What glowing eyes?" She stopped instantly. Drakken turned his head and pointed, but the eyes were gone.

"They were right over there…" he whined in a tone that reminded Shego of a young child trying to explain to his parents that the monster was in his closet two seconds before the lights were turned on. Her green eyes darted to every shady corner, every dark part of the alley, scanning the area as thoroughly as she could without actually moving.

"There's nothing here, Dr. D," she said slowly, as if she hadn't quite convinced herself of that fact.

"But…"

"Nothing here!" she said, now clearly aggravated. "Do you want to go back to the lair, or do you want me to leave you here to search for your glowing yellow eyes that don't exist."

"Uh, the former," he replied meekly.

"Good, now let's go!" she released him and marched deliberately once more towards the open street. Drakken followed, soon taking the lead back to where the hover car was parked in a shelter of bushes on the edge of one of Paris' many small parks.

"You flew this over the Atlantic Ocean by yourself?" Shego asked in disbelief.

"Yes. I am perfectly capable of flying my own invention, Shego," he said. "And besides the only people left to fly it were the henchmen and… well, you know what they're like around controls."

Shego nodded; still vaguely impressed that Drakken could pull off such a journey. Flying across an ocean in a hover car was tricky business. Plenty of things could go wrong and there'd be no place to land. Shego was careful not to show her boss she was, however slightly, impressed with him, and jumped gracefully into the passenger seat.

"Well, then I guess you wouldn't mind flying us back while I get some rest," she said, collapsing the seat so it lay flat.

"I…suppose," Drakken said, looking somewhat perplexed. It wasn't like Shego to get tired so easily, or to take the backseat to anyone else, especially him.

"I've just had a rough night, that's all," Shego said, twisting in her seat till she found a comfortable position. "I need some rest."

Drakken tapped his fingers nervously against his seat as if he was debating something in his mind. Finally, he found the courage to speak. "Shego, you said you'd kill me if I came after you and…"

Shego popped one eye open and fixed it on the blue doctor. "I said you'd be a dead man, Drakken," she said with harsh deliberateness, "I didn't say by me."

"Oh," Drakken responded, still quite confused. Shego rolled over, facing her back towards him and signaling the conversation over. Drakken started up the hover car and it lifted slowly in the air. Though he didn't know it, Shego kept her eyes open the entire flight.

**A/N: So, have I confused anyone yet? If I have I sincerely apologize. Hopefully it will make more sense once I have the rest of this thing written up. It seems to get longer and more complicated the more I work on it. Drat! Special thanks to those who reviewed (hugs) You guys just made my day.**


	5. The Mark

**A/N: Yes, I know, I'm the worst updater in the history of fanfiction and will probably end up getting the rest of this complicated plotline tortured out of me and then shot. (Please don't, I'm too young to die…) Anyways, all characters are copyright of Disney and are not mine, with the exception of Zeb (I just realized I never gave him a last name, lol) and Feliah Morgan and any other characters you don't recognize from the show… though since they are in the KP universe Disney probably owns them anyways by default. Meh, curses!**

Chapter 4: The Mark

Kim awoke groggily. She felt more drained than usual for some odd reason. "Perhaps the constant traveling is beginning to wear on me," she thought. She shuffled downstairs, not bothering to change out of her pajamas. To her dismay, the tweebs met her in the hallway; some sort of complicated device lay in front of them in pieces.

"Hey Kim," Tim said, looking up from his work.

"You look tired," Jim replied a split second after his brother.

"I flew to Paris and back in one day, of course I'm tired," Kim replied, irritated.

"You never…"

"…used to get tired," The tweebs started their game of finishing each other's sentences.

Kim shrugged. "I've been busy a lot lately okay, tweebs," she said defensively.

"Whatever," they said in unison. Suddenly Tim's eyes widened. "Woah, what's that on your arm!" he exclaimed, pointing a finger enthusiastically at her upper arm.

"It looks like she's molding!" Jim said with equal enthusiasm.

Kim gasped and dashed up the stairs to her bathroom. Her brother's cries echoing behind her. She slammed the door shut to block them out and stared at her reflection in the mirror. It was true. The delicate yellow lines that once graced her upper arm had been replaced with an ugly green spot, about the size of her fist. Thicker pale green lines sprayed out from the spot in all directions, some were almost long enough to wrap around her arm. Deftly, she reached out to touch the spot and quickly drew back her hand as a sharp pain moved up and down her arm. It wasn't puffy; it had the same texture as her skin, like a huge, green bruise.

A sharp knock sounded at the door. "Kimmie, what's going on?" her mother's voice sounded from outside, "The boys say you have some kind of mark on your arm."

Kim mentally kicked herself for forgetting to change out of her tank top. It was useless trying to hide from her mother now. "I… I don't know what it is…" she said weakly. The door creaked open and Mrs. Possible's worried face poked inside.

"What happened, Kim?" she asked, unable to mask the worry from her voice. She reached out to grab Kim's arm, but Kim grimaced and pulled away in pain.

"I don't know how it happened," Kim replied honestly. "It started out as a bunch of yellow lines and now…"

"You mean you had this earlier and you didn't tell me?"

"It was a lot smaller then. I didn't want you to worry." Kim said defensively.

Mrs. Possible looked at her daughter solemnly. "We'll have to take you to see a doctor later today. Whatever this is, it's obviously spreading and ignoring it isn't going to make it go away, Kim."

Kim sighed. "I know…"

"I'm going to call the hospital. Don't let your brothers touch that."

"Believe me, Mom, I won't." Kim looked down at the green spot. "I won't."

----------

Shego stared in horror at her reflection. She had removed the bandage from her forearm, and though the cuts had pretty much healed, the sight was still frightening. The skin around the cuts had turned black, or at least a very, very dark green. Gradually lighter shades of green spread up and around her arm, eventually reaching a uniform shade across the rest of her body. Shego had gotten used to having slightly green skin, but now the green hue was darker and conspicuous. She could blend perfectly inside a garden of ripe spinach. What's more it was starting to hurt. A small touch on her arm and she was overwhelmed with an intense stinging sensation that could not be ignored… and Shego had mastered the art of ignoring pain.

Shego turned away from the mirror and clamped her eyes shut. The main thing was not to panic. The minute she panicked she'd lose control of the situation. Her eyes opened and glanced at her arm. What was she thinking? She had already lost control of the situation. She sank to the floor, a wave of hopelessness washed over her. Somehow she had always known it would turn out like this. She laughed aloud despite herself. "It's the beginning of the end."

----------

"Kim!"

"You're boyfriend's here!" the twins yelled from the bottom of the stairs in their typical, mocking tone. Seconds later Ron burst into her room with Rufus perched on his shoulder and something tucked under his arm.

"Kim, you'll never guess what…" Ron started out with an air of excitement but stopped short when he saw Kim. "KP… you feeling okay?" Ron asked tentatively.

Something in Kim snapped and she instantly began to pour out weeks worth of hidden anxiety and worry on her best friend. He listened quietly, attentively to her as she showed him the green mark on her shoulder and explained how it started as faint, yellow lines and how her brothers saw it and how her mother was so worried she'd hardly let her out of the house and how she was getting so tired she could barely take an entire hour of cheer practice and how her headaches were keeping her from sleeping now and how the doctor couldn't explain what was happening to her or what was going to happen to her and how, for once in her life, she was completely unsure of what was going on and how to handle it and, for once in her life, she was afraid that she couldn't handle it. She came close to crying, but didn't. Ron was there with a hand on her shoulder and a comforting smile. "The doctors couldn't figure out anything?" he asked after she had a few moments to calm down.

"No," she replied, "he asked me how I got it, but I have no idea. How many people wake up with green spots on their skin? It's all so creepy and frightening." She shuddered.

"Well, try and think back. When did you start getting those headaches?" Ron suggested.

Kim shut her eyes and tried to remember. "It was shortly after prom. The day after, I think…" Her mind drifted back to that night. So much had happened, but she remembered every last detail. It had only been a few weeks ago…

-Prom Night (So the Drama)-

"You know what I really hate?"

"When someone kidnaps your boyfriend?"

"When someone doesn't know when to quit!"

With a huge bolt of energy from her glowing green hands, Shego sent her adversary diving for cover and blasted a huge hole in the wall of the taco-shaped building. It was of no consequence. She would finish her tonight, she was sure of it.

Kim expertly dodged the next series of blasts, jumping up onto one of the series of platforms that lined the wall of Bueno Nacho headquarters. She activated the shield on her battle suit, causing a sphere of blue glow to circle around her body, protecting her from another green blast.

Kim looked up to see a particularly large bolt of green energy hurtling towards her. It was time to give Shego a taste of her own plasma. She morphed her right glove into a large paddle just in time to catch the blast like a baseball. Swinging her arm back, she launched the bolt back where it came from, the glove increasing the force behind the throw. Shego ducked just in time and the blast went through the glass window just above her head. Her hair still swinging from the impact, Shego raised herself back up to her full height and stared down at her adversary. "Ooh, Kimmie got an upgrade."

Kim flipped up to a higher level, morphing the glove back to normal. "Not bad, huh?"

"Yeah, but still not in my league," Shego replied, with a sneer. She executed a back flip launching herself over Kim. Twisting midair, she ignited her gloves, and before Kim had a chance to turn around, she had slashed her hand forward, catching Kim in the arm. The attack had been quick, full of energy but poorly aimed. Shego herself was slightly surprised when she felt her nails meet flesh, when she realized what she had just done. The blow nearly missed Kim altogether, but the force was enough to send her toppling over the bridge.

The pain seized Kim all at once. There was one brief moment when Shego's glowing claws met her arm and Kim was overcome with a powerful stinging sensation. She opened her mouth to cry out, but the next thing she knew she was falling, the stinging sensation gone. Thinking fast, she turned midair to face the spot she had fallen from and launched a grapple hook from her wrist. Swinging expertly up to where Shego still stood, she landed with a crouch, her head tilted down.

"Like I said," Shego began, her eyes fixed on the red scratch marks on Kim's arm. To her surprise, the torn edges of Kim's sleeve came to life, stretching, growing before her eyes. In no time at all, the entire ripped sleeve had repaired itself, covering Kim's injury. Shego's eyes widened in surprise as her adversary rose to her full height, taking a normal fighting stance as if she hadn't been touched at all. "You were saying…" Kim began.

Shego was furious. It hadn't been enough that this teenager had been the bane of her existence for the bulk of her villainous career. It wasn't enough that she had been the source of countless humiliating defeats. It wasn't enough that she and her stupid, high-tech, battle suit had found a way to beat the most powerful weapon in her arsenal. No, the teenager was practically mocking her. Getting up like nothing had happened, ignoring the fact that Shego had finally did some damage, finally drew blood. Shego despised her in that moment more than ever. She lit her gloves with a snarl and charged.

----------

Kim shook herself out of her reverie and touched the green spot on her arm; the same spot Shego's lit gloves had cut her that night. The suit had a built in rejuvenating system and the minute it repaired itself to cover the wound it had begun its healing process. By the end of the night all evidence that she had been hurt was gone. She had thought nothing more of the fact that it had been the first time Shego ever managed to draw blood. Sure their battles were often intense, she was almost always covered in bruises, she had been hit with Shego's green glow on several occasions, but never once did Shego ever break the skin… not that she hadn't tried.

Ron shifted awkwardly and Kim realized she hadn't said anything in awhile. "Ron," she started, "I think Shego has something to do with this." She gestured toward her arm.

"You think Shego made your arm green?" Ron looked perplexed. "Is that even possible?"

"When we were fighting on prom night she slashed at me with her green glow and scratched me. Now I've got this weird green mark on that same exact spot. There's no other explanation."

"Well, what do we do?" Ron asked.

"We have to find her and get some answers." She jumped up with a renewed energy and began digging in her closet for her mission clothes.

"Umm, speaking of Shego," Ron began, pulling a videotape out from under his arm where he had been holding it, "I think you might want to check this out."

"Where'd you get that?" Kim watched Ron slip the tape into the VCR with a skeptical expression.

"It was in that box of videos Hego gave us."

"Ron! I thought you mailed those!"

"I was bored, okay. Besides, this is really freaky." He leaned back and crossed his legs in a way that resembled a five-year-old waiting for their favorite cartoon show to start. Kim sighed and sat down next to him.

The screen was fuzzy for a few moments, then the image of a wall lined with punching bags and loose dumbbells came into focus. A yell and a grunt were heard off-screen and the camera paned slightly just as a green-and-black-clad figure fell into the camera's vision, sliding a foot across the floor from the momentum of the fall. The figure was a tall, lanky looking teenager with thick, black hair pulled into a ponytail and dressed in a familiar green and black jumpsuit. She jumped to her feet somewhat awkwardly and her hands erupted in a familiar green glow. Kim smirked despite herself, so this is what Shego looked like as a teenager. Somehow she wasn't what Kim had expected. She had always pictured her adversary as a confident, beautiful, threatening person, but this girl was shaky and unbalanced, any degree of confidence in her seemed forced, though the familiar scowl was genuine enough. Another figure leapt into view, this one dressed in an identical costume only with a bright orange replacing the green. Shego lashed out at her with a glowing fist and the figure ducked. Raising a set of long, hideous looking claws she slashed at Shego, who jumped and rolled out of the way at the last second.

They continued in a sort of dance that was all too familiar to Kim. The 15-year-old Shego seemed to have mastered the basics, but was shaky with the more advanced moves. The orange figure, on the other hand, was obviously older and very experienced. She moved quickly and forcefully, but always with a sense of grace and fluidity. Shego faked right and moved to catch her from behind but the figure wasn't fooled. She spun around, her foot sweeping out behind Shego's ankles, lifting her off her feet and sending her sprawling across the ground. Kim gasped. The figure was facing the camera, revealing her face for the first time. Her eyes were wide and pupil-less; the iris was emitting an eerie, orange glow that bathed her entire face in orange light.

"What did I tell you about watching your feet," the woman stated, the glow from her eyes intensified as if fire was leaping from her retina. "You can't rely on your hands all the time! Let's try this again, and this time watch what's headed towards your feet!" The glow from her eyes faded quickly, the orange glow replaced with a pair of large, but normal, brown eyes. Kim's heart skipped a beat.

"Ron, that couldn't possibly be…"

"I'm pretty sure it is, Kim," Ron said. "I mean, other than the costume and the gray streaks and the creepy glowing eyes… she looks just like Feliah."

"Of course…" Kim muttered to herself, deep in though. "It's starting to make sense now!"

"It is?" Ron said, picking up the remote to rewind the tape. The realization that Feliah and Shego actually knew each other, maybe even had a teacher/student relationship, not to mention Feliah had some sort of superpower, was yet another random piece of a puzzle that didn't seem to fit anywhere.

As usual, Kim saw the situation differently. "This explains why she acted strangely when we showed her that rock, and why she was in Paris yesterday. She must've figured out that Zeb wanted to meet Shego there and knew they were up to something."

"She didn't see the note. How could she have figured that out?"

"Well, she did see the rock. Both Feliah and Shego reacted very strangely too it… Maybe it's some sort of signal…"

Ron froze, his eyes widened as if something had just occurred to him. "Or maybe," he began, "the rock can steal their powers!"

"What! Ron, that's…"

"No, hear me out KP, remember when Hego first showed us the rock and I could've sworn I remembered seeing it somewhere. Well I think I know where I recognized it. It's the same rock Aviarius had on his staff!"

"Ron, that rock was black; the one Aviarius had was white."

"Think about it, KP. Both rocks are about the same size and shape, they both had that cloudy, transparent look, and they both reflected a ton of rainbows everywhere. And if both rocks can take away the Go powers that would explain why Shego and Feliah got all spooked when they saw it. Maybe it was…"

"…it was a threat!" Kim finished for him, realization dawning on her. "The note was a threat and so was the rock. If Zeb sent it… he must be planning on taking all of their powers… But why would he do that, Ron? He was Shego's best friend."

Ron shrugged. "Hego implied he wasn't a very nice guy. And he lost touch with Shego like eight years ago."

"But stealing superpowers from his childhood friend? That's the work of a completely heartless villain. Not even Shego was able to keep her brothers' powers, and they weren't exactly close."

"A lot can happen in eight years," Ron replied, almost sadly. They both were thinking the exact same thing, though neither of them would dare say it. What if it happened to them? What if the childhood they spent as best friends didn't continue after high school, after they officially grew up and moved out and started their own lives? What if they lost touch, lost the understanding they had for one another? What if eight years from now they turned against each other, threatened each other? Ron looked at Kim and Kim looked at Ron. Up till now both lives had be intertwined with the others. It was a natural assumption that their friendship would continue. Did Shego and Zeb think the same thing at one point?

Kim shook those thoughts out of her mind. They weren't Shego and Zeb; they were two completely different people with a completely different relationship. After all, Kim would never become a villain like Shego, and Ron would never vanish from her life without warning like Zeb did. Kim finally decided to break the silence. "We're making an awful lot of assumptions, Ron. The woman in the video may not be Feliah, and the rock may have nothing to do with any threat."

"If that woman isn't Feliah, then who is she?"

Kim's memory drifted to the gravestone Feliah had visited. Mariah Morgan… could she have possibly been Feliah's relative and Shego's teacher, only to die in a car accident in Paris? It seemed unlikely but the possibility was still there. "I guess now we have another reason to pay Shego a visit," Kim said, glancing down at the green spot on her arm.

-14 years ago-

"I never thought I'd be so happy to walk to school!" Shego said, jumping onto a brick wall someone had uses to frame the flowerbed along their front yard, unable to conceal her enthusiasm. It had been nearly a month since the incident with the meteor. Their parents had rushed home to find their house burned to the ground, a giant crater in the backyard where the tree house used to stand, and to top it all off, their children had glowing body parts.

Rachel Go had gone ballistic, not that anyone really blamed her. She would insist on sending her children to the nearest hospital one minute, than protest against it the next, saying she didn't want her children subjected to unorthodox experiments. It had taken awhile for her to break the almost constant lapse of hysteria. Their father, Leego, finally took charge of the situation, taking his children out of school until they could find a solution. They told the authorities the house had caught on fire while the family was away. Seeing that no one was hurt, and apparently bypassing the giant crater, the police left it at that and the Go family was able to keep the whole thing a secret from everyone; except Zeb, who Shego trusted more than anyone.

By the time the family moved into a temporary apartment deeper in the city and the children had maintained a level of control over their new abilities and Rachel had recovered enough of her sanity to realize she couldn't hide her children from the world forever; the Go children had missed nearly four weeks of school. Shego didn't care for school as much as the next kid, but being locked up in a dinky apartment with her crazy family was far less desirable. Being able to walk to school with her best friend was a much needed turn towards normalcy for her.

"People sure have been wondering what happened to you," Zeb said, switching his backpack from his right shoulder to his left. "I kept telling them you were visiting your grandfather."

Shego nodded and hopped off the end of the wall. They had decided to use their grandfather's heart attack as an excuse for their long absence. It wasn't a complete lie, after all he did have a heart attack and Leego and Rachel did leave to visit him, though if anybody at the school got nosy they'd probably find out that the kids didn't come along, and Leego and Rachel only stayed a couple of days and came home after news of the "fire".

"So, are your parents still against you using your powers?" Zeb asked, hopefully. He had taken a special interest in the meteor and the effect it had, going as far as calling them "superpowers" as if Shego and her brothers were comic book heroes destined to bring the criminal population of Go City to justice.

"Not this again…" Shego whined.

"C'mon Shego! Haven't you at least thought about it?"

"My brothers and I are not superheroes…"

"But you could be. I can see it now, 'Team Go! Defenders of Justice!'…"

"In the first place, my airhead brothers couldn't hit an elephant much less fight villains…" Shego began.

"Not true, and you know it," Zeb said, "Hego and Mego may not be the brightest crayons in the box, but they are competent athletes. I bet they could knock some crooks down, especially now that you guys have superpowers."

"In the second place," Shego continued as if Zeb never spoke, "they aren't superpowers; they're a disease that would send us to some government testing facility faster than you can say 'unorthodox genetic experimentation'. I don't even know what mine's supposed to do." She looked at her hands. The glow that turned her brothers into freaks of nature had at least proved to be useful. Hego's strength had come in handy on several occasions, Mego's shrinking abilities already proved useful for finding lost keys under the couch, even the twins' replicating abilities made picking up their room take a nanosecond as opposed to the usual three hours. Shego couldn't help but feel a little cheated by her powers. They didn't do much, other than blast holes in the wall whenever she got angry. Zeb claimed she just lacked imagination and would soon find a good use for them. Shego would be more than happy if her hands never lit up again.

"In the third place, Go City doesn't have supervillains. Even if we did form some dorky superhero team we wouldn't be helping anybody."

"Are you kidding? This city has plenty of crime!" Zeb protested.

"That the police can handle. My brothers and I would just be in the way."

"So… if the city was attacked by some villain with some psycho obsession like plants or birds or something, you would fight him?"

Shego gave him a strange look. "Why should I care if somebody has a weird obsession with birds?"

"But if he was gonna blow up the city or something, you would fight to stop him, right?" Zeb said, glancing nervously behind him.

"I don't see what good it would do, but if some psycho was trying to kill me, yeah I'd stop him."

"Good… and speaking of birds…" Zeb turned and pointed to a large condor swooping down on the two teenagers. "Alright, Shego, blast him with your… Shego?" Zeb turned to find his best friend had taken off, racing down the sidewalk at warp speed. Zeb groaned and raced after her, panting to catch up. The condor let out a fierce cry, as if warning the two teens that resistance was futile.

Zeb finally caught up to Shego as she turned a corner. "Y'know what…" he said, panting, "I think the whole reason you're so against being a hero is cuz you're scared."

Shego turned sharply toward him, her eyes wide. "What are you talking about?"

"You heard me. You could've roasted that thing but you're just chicken!"

"I am not chicken! And I'm not gonna use my powers on a condor in the middle of the most populated neighborhood in downtown Go City. You're insane!"

"There's nobody here! What are you worried about!" Zeb yelled. The condor was gaining on them and they were blocks away from the school. A few passerbies, including a man watering his patch of a front lawn, were forcefully pushed aside by the two pursued teens and chaos ensued. Cars swerved away from the condor and nearly crashed into each other. A young woman jogging with her dog screamed and ducked behind a thin tree, the dog yapping in the condor's direction. The man watering his lawn dropped his hose to run inside his house, tripping on his welcome mat. The condor ignored the handful of people scattering like ants and swooped closer toward his target. His talons opened and stretched towards the girl with the long, black ponytail, bouncing against her back as she ran.

"Shego! Look out!" Zeb skidded to a stop and turned to grab his friend's hand as the condor closed a talon around her. Shego reached out for him, but it was too late. With a flap of his large wings that nearly knocked Zeb off his feet the condor lifted high into the air and flew off towards the outskirts of the city. Zeb froze on the sidewalk, out of breath and in a panic. What could he do? Going to school certainly wouldn't help save Shego. He doubted anyone, including the police would believe a giant condor flew off with his best friend. Shego's father was probably clear across the city where he worked by now, and her mom would probably lapse into another fit of hysterics if she knew her daughter had been carried off. That only left one other option: Hego and Mego.

Zeb sighed. He was going to resent asking Shego's pigheaded brothers for any kind of help, but who else would? After all, they were her brothers and they were the ones with superpowers. He just hoped he was right in defending them earlier when he said they were competent fighters.

He crossed the street and headed towards Go City High as fast as he could. He was Shego's only hope now.

**A/N: Well, I hope this chapter shed _a little_ light on things. Or perhaps it just confused you more . I'm still kinda debating having you guys figure things out as Kim and Ron do, or giving you a ton of flashbacks and having you figure it out for yourselves ;) I know the plot's kinda confusing, which is probably why it's so frustrating for me to write xD, but hang in there. It will all make sense in the end… (I hope!)**

**As always, reviews make me smile, and a little more motivated. If you want to know what happens next, or have some criticism on my horrible writing, REVIEW!!!!!**


	6. Kim's Ultimatum

**AN: I officially hate life! Gahhhhhhh! My computer's been driving me insane, not to mention school and work and parents… except now that I've officially graduated I don't have school anymore yippie! till college anyways, drat! Anyways, I know this update is long overdue so thank you all for your patience. I swear I must've rewrote this three times, I'm just never completely sure how to tackle this story, so many versions of it are swimming around in my head it's hard to think straight. Anyways, enjoy this long awaited chapter…**

Chapter 5: Kim's Ultimatum

Drakken heard the door slam clear across the hallway. The table he had been seated at shook from the force of the blow and he had to hold several rattling test tubes to keep them from falling over. There was no mistaking where the slam had come from: Shego's room. She had locked herself in her room shortly after their return from Paris several days ago. At first he thought little of it. It was typical of Shego to isolate herself when she was in a particularly foul mood… either that or she'd be ruthlessly destroying something and Drakken greatly preferred the former, but to not leave her room for three days for so much as a sarcastic comment was unusual.

Try as he might, Drakken couldn't shake the nagging sensation of worry steadily growing in the pit of his stomach. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that something was seriously wrong, he just couldn't figure out what it was if his life depended on it. Obviously something bad had happened in Paris, something to do with that note Kim Possible had been so eager to deliver. Who was that supposed to be from again? Did it even say? And what could've possibly happened that Shego would end up sneaking through the back alleyways of Paris with her entire forearm covered in bandages? Drakken groaned and rested his head in his palm. From what little he could understand of the situation it obviously wasn't good. What made it doubly frustrating was he had no idea what to do. Whatever was going on obviously didn't concern him; Shego was an adult, she could take care of herself, he had no reason to concern himself with her business. But then again, she was his top henchperson and in many ways his greatest asset. Did that mean he automatically had a right to know exactly what was going on? If anything he should be entitled to know if the wounds on her arm were serious, shouldn't he?

Drakken sighed. Shego had made it clear she wasn't going to share any information with him anytime soon. He had gotten up the courage to approach her, or rather knocked on bedroom door, twice in the past three days. The first time he was met with such an icy "Get the hell away from my door!" and he practically tripped over his own feet in rush to get away. The second time he was pretty sure she had been sleeping. It was hard to tell with the closed door, but he thought he could hear her breathing on the other side. And now that she had finally come out he didn't know whether to feel relieved or terrified.

She had entered the room rather quietly in comparison with the earlier slamming of the door. He waited till she had walked past him towards the kitchen before daring to look up at her. What he saw was frightening. She seemed thinner, frailer, like she was a worn out piece of elastic about to snap. Her black hair hung limply down her back and her normally straight, graceful posture seemed tired and slumped. What was most striking was her face. Her green eyes were dull and half-closed, making her look strangely sleepy; the scowl of her mouth was soft and lazy. Most noticeable of all was her skin, which was now the color of an unripe banana.

"Shego?" Drakken hesitated, the knowledge he was treading on dangerous waters overriding his desire to forcefully demand what was wrong with her. She ignored him, pulling various contents from the refrigerator without even a glance in his direction. He raised his voice a little louder, "Shego."

She closed the door of the fridge with more force than necessary and whirled around to face him. "What?"

"I…er…you… are you feeling okay?" Drakken stammered.

"Oh, perfect, just dandy, Doc," she muttered, plopping herself in a chair with a whole orange clenched in one hand. She stabbed the fruit violently with the nail of her index finger and proceeded to peel it, juice running through her hands and down her arms contrasting disturbingly with the green of her skin.

"It's just lately you seem kinda…" Drakken paused, mentally struggling for the correct word.

All at once Shego jolted up from her chair, the legs scraping against the floor, the orange squeezed mercilessly in her now clenched fist. "Green!" she shouted, "just say it, Doc, I look _green_!"

"No, that wasn't what I was gonna…"

"But it's true, I. Look. Green!"

Drakken winced as, what was undoubtedly, orange juice sprayed into his face. "That's not what I… that is… you've always looked green, I don't see why it's such a big deal now."  
Shego lowered her orange-juice-drenched fist and glared at him, a strange expression creeping over her face. It was a look somewhere between angry and anguish. She didn't look sad in the slightest, and yet Drakken was almost sure she was about to cry. She blinked several times, finally noticing her fist dripping orange juice into a puddle on the floor. She tossed the orange in a nearby trashcan, moving to the sink to wash her hands, all the while keeping her back turned toward Drakken.

"Shego…" he began, when he suspected she had regained her composure.

"I haven't always been green y'know." She stated simply. "Don't you remember? Before we were working together, before the lair and the henchmen and the schemes, back when we first met… when we both at least _looked_ like normal people… You don't remember it, do you?"

Drakken was baffled. He had met Shego at a museum heist several years back. They both had attempted to steal the same crystal statue the first day it was on display, though she had gotten there a few seconds before he and his henchmen did. He was so impressed with her combat skill in defeating his henchmen he offered her a job on the spot. Though some of the details were rather sketchy he was positively certain she was green-skinned then, it was one of those things you just didn't forget. No, Shego must be delusional... or very confused at best. They had met looking the same way they did from then on, green and blue.

"No, you can't remember," she said, her eyes fixed on his in a way that made Drakken sure she had been reading his thoughts. "That's the way it should be, I suppose…" she paused, an eerie silence filling the room. Drakken didn't know why, but he suddenly felt as if he was missing something. Something important. Something he had buried deep within his mind for years that refused to be resurfaced.

Shego broke the silence.

"I had forgotten it, too."

----------

Feliah Morgan jangled her keys in her hands, finally shoving the correct one into the slot on her apartment door. She was greeted with a "mew" from Bastet, who wove in between her mistress's ankles purring noisily.

"Yes, yes, I missed you too, Bastet," she said, scratching the dark cat in between her ears. "Now run along and I'll bring you something to eat." The cat immediately bounded off into the shadows clouding the interior of the apartment. Feliah methodically hung her heavy coat on the door-handle and moved to the kitchen, navigating through the darkness by memory.

She didn't turn on a single light once she reached the kitchen, feeling for a can of cat food and moving to Bastet's dish without missing a beat, somehow managing to dodge the anxious cat darting in and out of her path. She lifted the can to her eyelevel and smirked, holding it deftly with the tips of her horrendously long fingernails. Slowly she lifted a finger, shutting her eyes to concentrate. Her finger began to burn, as if she had stuck it over a strong flame, she concentrated harder and the burning sensation traveled upwards to the very tip of her nail. Then, with controlled slowness, the nail began to glow, softly at first and then brighter to an almost neon green. Feliah touched the tip of the nail onto the can. The glow instantly erupted into a green flame, in one swift motion cutting a perfect, neat circle out of the top of the can, the lid crashing to the floor in less than a millisecond.

Feliah stared at the perfectly opened can to her glowing finger and back again. Bastet stared up at Feliah, filled with intense curiosity at the illuminated finger casting an eerie, greenish glow on her mistress's face. Then, Feliah began to giggle. It started as a soft rumble in her chest that soon grew and flew from her lips like a bat from a cave. Her giggle crescendoed into a deep and terrifying laugh, the glow simultaneously brightening and spreading until her entire hand was encased in green flame. Somehow, she forgot about the can of cat food, becoming totally absorbed in the intoxicating glow. She raced from the room with a fury, the glow from her hands lighting the path in front of her. She dug her nails into a wall, racing down the hallway dragging her glowing appendages behind her and creating five long, ugly gashes through the wallpaper. She shot picture frames off the opposing wall with a delighted squeal and then turned to the couch. Shards of stuffing flew into the air, swirling in a convoluted mass around her like a snowstorm accompanied by the green glow. Her bathroom mirrors were sliced through like butter, her refrigerator reduced to a smoldering heap, her bed trashed beyond recognition. The whole apartment was decorated with gashes and tears, marks from her very own fingernails. Bastet cringed in petrified fear behind a desk until it was smashed in half by a bright green fist. The once darkened apartment was now awash in sporadic bursts of green light.

And all the while, Feliah's melodious laughter vibrated throughout the walls of the shredded apartment.

----------

"Hey, Kim, the pilot says we're nearing Drakken's coordinates," Ron said, shaking Kim awake. She lifted her head with a drowsy sigh.

"Wha…"

"Drakken's lair. We're just about there."

Kim yawned and sat up. She rolled up her sleeve. "Ron, I think it's spreading."

Ron touched her hand and pulled her sleeve back down. "Don't worry about that now, Kim. We'll find Shego and whatever she did to you, we'll convince her to undo it."

Kim nodded and followed Ron off the plane. It was strange, just days before she had been exiting planes _before_ they landed, dragging Ron behind like a scared, but loyal, puppy. Now he was leading her, one hand protectively on her shoulder. If it had been anyone but Ron, Kim would've been annoyed. It wasn't like she was paralyzed or something, she was just a little tired, and a little green. She didn't need to be lead around like a blind person, but Ron was only trying to help, so she let it go.

They crossed to a pair of jet skis in the rear of the sea-plane. They were only a few yards away from the island that housed Drakken's lair but neither of them felt quite up to swimming. They had scaled halfway up the mountain to the lair before the plane took off again.

"You ready, Ron?"

"Yep. So, how're we getting in KP? Air vent? Blast through the roof?"

"How about the door?" Kim gestured toward a welcome mat set in front of an inconspicuous doorframe and a conspicuous red button. Kim moved to press the button.

"Careful, Kim, it might be a trap,"

"It's just a doorbell, Ron,"

"Like Drakken would just put a doorbell in front of his lair, it probably initiates a firing sequence or a trap door or…"

Kim pressed the button and a surprisingly merry chime echoed from within the lair. Moments later they could Drakken's voice yelling "I'll get it!" and the door swished open.

"Kim Possible!" Drakken stepped back, surprised.

"You can relax Drakken, we're still not here to bust you," Kim said, stepping into the lair with an air of control.

"Dude, y'know your doorbell trap is broken," Ron said nonchalantly.

Drakken face twisted to a look of confusion. "Doorbell trap?"

"Yeah, what is it supposed to do? Fire lasers, drop into a piranha moat…"

"It's a _doorbell_! It makes a noise when someone's at the _door_!" Drakken said irritated.

"Ron, give it a rest, there are no doorbell traps." Kim dragged her boyfriend inside. She turned to Drakken, "We need to talk to Shego…"

"Again! What is going on that I don't know about!" Drakken's frustration was peaked.

"You mean you don't know?"

"Of course not! I've been in the dark on everything this past week! She's my top henchperson you'd think she'd at least tell me why she's suddenly sick…"

"Whoa, whoa, Shego's sick?" Ron asked.

Drakken slumped. It felt strange telling his arch-foes about his problems with his sidekick but he had nowhere else to turn. They obviously wanted answers as much as he did, it couldn't hurt. "She looks awful," he began quietly, "I've never seen her like this, all worn out and frail-looking. She's moodier than usual, always yelling at me or giving me these cryptic answers…and her skin is this awful green color… I mean it's always been green just now it's… greener."

Kim and Ron exchanged shocked looks, neither knowing quite what to think. "Can we see her?" Kim finally asked.

"She's sleeping right now. I wouldn't want to wake…"

"Guess again, Drakken," a voice echoed from across the hall. Kim's eyes widened at what was undoubtedly a very green, very ill Shego walked into the room. A tense moment of silence passed, no one quite able to find something appropriate to say. Shego finally broke the silence, coming nearly face to face with Ron and Kim, "Did you all come to gape at the freak or did you have something more important to do?"

"We wanted to…that is…umm…"

"What Ron's trying to say is… we just have so much we need to ask you…"

"What is this!? An interview? Hate to break it to you, Kimmie, but I've got no comment."

Kim ignored her and rolled up her sleeve, revealing the green patch of skin that spread up her arm. Shego's expression immediately changed to shock. Kim was almost certain she saw Drakken's jaw drop in her peripheral vision. "You remember the Diablo sitch? Of course you do, it was your best scheme yet. I hate to admit it but you really put one over on me…" she scanned the faces of her two arch-foes, analyzing their shocked expressions, almost equally amazed that she would pay her enemies a compliment. "Shego, you did something that night you never managed to do before… you cut me. I figured it was just a scratch and that my suit would take care of it, but…" she stopped.

Shego looked as if she was about to faint. "What exactly did you come to ask me?"

"What did you do to me?" Kim said, holding her arm. "And how can I cure it?"

"I can't believe it… I can't believe it worked…" Shego muttered incredulously.

"What?"

"It wasn't supposed to… I mean I wanted it to but I never thought…"

"Shego! This is serious! Can you cure Kim or can't you?" Ron exclaimed, tired of the villainess's babbling.

Shego angrily shoved a hand into the teenager's face. "Does it look like I have a cure to you? It's not the stomach flu, you idiot."

"You mean, what's happening to me… is the same thing that's happening to you?" Kim shook, the prospect of turning as green as Shego making her nervous.

Shego laughed. "You couldn't possibly understand what's happening to me."

"Hey, I'm a Possible. I can do anything, remember."

"Then find your stupid cure by yourself, I don't have to help you." She turned to leave only to have her path intercepted by Ron.

"It's okay, Ron, I suppose we could always ask Feliah Morgan since Shego is so unwilling to help us," Kim said with a slight sneer. Shego froze, her fists clenched tightly at the mention of the name. Kim had somehow hit a soft spot and she knew it. The villainess whirled around.

"How do you know Feliah?"

"We've met before," Kim smirked. Shego's reaction seemed to be playing to her advantage. "And apparently you used to know each other… back when you were a hero."

Shego shot Kim an exceptionally harsh glare. "What do you want from me?"

"The truth. This whole ordeal has been dragged on long enough. Either you tell me what I want to know about Feliah and Zeb and this green disease, or I'll piece it together myself. Either way it gets out in the open… only it will be quicker and less painful if you cooperate."

Shego looked towards Drakken who, despite his apparent confusion, stood behind Kim and Ron, nothing in his expression betraying anything that would help Shego out of the situation. He wanted the answers just as badly as Kim and Ron did. Shego sighed, "So it's to be an interrogation then?"

"Not necessarily," Kim smiled, "it could be storytime, if you wish."

Shego raised an eyebrow at the comment but finally deemed it more preferable, if not ridiculous, than her own suggestion. "Well, pull up a chair, kiddies," she said, "Storytime's beginning." After they all were situated in Drakken's surprisingly cozy den, Shego continued. "You all have to promise me that what I say stays in this room, understood?"

"I don't think we should promise anything until we've heard it…"

"I haven't breathed a word of my past to anyone," Shego glanced at Drakken who stared perplexedly back at her. "It's painful for me to even think about. I hadn't until you gave me that stupid note..."

"Seeing Zeb again was painful?" Ron asked.

Shego nodded. "Very painful. You'll understand when I've explained everything. But this story stays under wraps where it belongs or I'm not saying anything and you'll never get rid of that green spot."

Kim covered her arm, "Fine." She sighed. Shego glanced at Ron, who nodded, and then at Drakken.

"We're family, Shego. Anything you have to say stays with me."

Shego smiled slightly. "Now, where to begin… you already know about the comet, my annoying brothers, you know about Zeb… I guess the best place to start would be where I met Feliah."

-14 years ago-

"There it is. We're almost there!" Hego exclaimed.

"Shhhh!" Zeb hissed back, "We're using the element of surprise, remember…"

"Yeah, bro, keep quiet!" Mego said, slightly softer than his normal volume, "your constant chattering is getting so…"

His remark was met with a harsh "Shhhh…" from the other two boys and they continued to climb the mountain in relative silence. After Shego was abducted by a large condor in an incident that sounded crazy even to Zeb himself, Zeb had found Hego and Mego and convinced them to come with him and track down the bird. It hadn't been particularly difficult. The condor had left a trail of frightened, bewildered, and even amazed citizens who were more than happy to point the boys in the right direction. They ended up at Go Mountain on the outskirts of the city, and someone had apparently taken the liberty of constructing a giant nest near the top of it. They had driven up most of the way and were now climbing to the nest, searching for some sort of entrance. Zeb was convinced that the only way they'd have any sort of advantage over whoever had kidnapped Shego was if they could sneak up on them, which proved difficult for two brothers who didn't seem to comprehend the meaning of the word "stealth". The good news was they had managed to reach the nest safely… the bad news was they still had no way to get inside.

"Maybe there's a door hidden in the nest somewhere," Hego said, digging through some of the straw that made up the nest.

"But this thing is huge. It'll take forever to search the whole thing…" Mego whined.

"There are three of us," Zeb started, calm as ever despite the anxiousness he felt internally, "if we split up we'll be able to search faster. Hego can look to the left, Mego to the right."

"What about you?" Hego asked suspiciously.

"I'm searching those eggs in the middle." And with that, Zeb disappeared into the nest.

----------

"I'm going to ask you one more time… _**where's the rock?!**_" the iron birdcage that encased Shego vibrated violently with the force of the yell.

Shego grasped onto a bar of the cage to keep from falling over and glared up at the man who had imprisoned her. "And this is the last time I'm going to tell you… I don't know what _**you're talking about!**_" The man stepped back and cringed at the force of her temper that matched his own. He had sent his best minion, his condor, to fetch her and after going through the extensive trouble of locking her in cage while she kicked and screamed like an animal, he had been vigorously interrogating her with nothing to show for it. He turned from her, letting his voluptuous purple cape swish behind him. He needed a new strategy; a new way to get information from her.

He turned back to her. "It's just occurred to me that I have been extremely rude in not introducing myself. I am…." He paused for dramatic emphasis, lifting the cape over his head for an extra flare, "AVIARIUS!"

"Aviarius? What, was Birdman already taken?" Shego asked, eyebrow raised.

Aviarius's face flushed with anger. "Insolent girl! How dare you mock the great Aviar…" suddenly, he was interrupted by a loud crash followed by a yelp and a tangled ball of denim, red sweatshirt, and sand-brown hair rolled across the floor coming to rest between Aviarius and the birdcage.

"Zeb?" Shego exclaimed at the figure sprawled at her feet.

"Hey Shego…" Zeb panted, "…found the… door…" Shego looked up and found a trail of overturned boxes of what looked to be birdseed that led to and opening in the wall. Before she could blink, two other figures leaped through the doorway in mock fighting poses.

"Alright… whoever you are," Hego bellowed in a highly authoritative voice, "let my sister go and be spared from our wrath!"

Shego rolled her eyes. Aviarius threw his hands in the air in mock surrender. "Oh, I'm so scared," he said, then quickly changing his tone of voice, "Condor attack!" The condor swooped down and grabbed a boy in each talon. Mego shrunk down and dropped into the birdcage.

"Hang on, sis," he said, in a tiny, high-pitched voice.

"Mego, don't…" Shego started. Mego surrounded himself in a purple glow and began to grow, only to receive a very powerful shock.

"What is this?" he shouted, not quite back to his normal height.

"The bars are sensitive to our powers," Shego explained, "Why did you think I didn't slash myself out of here in the first place, you moron!"

The two siblings could only watch helplessly as Hego struggled to push himself out of the condor's grasp while Aviarius attempted to catch Zeb running aimlessly around the birdseed-covered floors.

In nearly five minutes, all four teenagers were trapped inside the birdcage.

Aviarius had launched into an extensive rant on how he would dominate the world with his fellow bird brethren using their fantastic powers… a rant which none of the children completely understood, when out of nowhere a figure pounced on him, sending him sprawling to the floor. The fight which ensued didn't last long. The woman who attacked Aviarius succeeded in more or less incapacitating him with a punch to the gut and a roundhouse kick. The condor swooped down in retaliation and caught her in his talons. Suddenly, another figure emerged from somewhere near the rounded ceiling and landed on the condor's head. She balanced on the condor's head, taking a moment to get used to his flight pattern. She stretched out her arms, which began to glow a bright white. The teenagers watched in awe as the woman lifted her glowing arms and touched them to the condor's head. The bird let out a cry and released the first figure, who dropped to the ground with ease, before losing all control of his flying and crashed into another pile of boxes. The second woman jumped from his head and landed in a pose identical to the first's except with a shower of birdseed falling from the crushed boxes. The two women approached each other, surveying the damage before giving each other energetic high-fives.

"Did you see the way that bird crashed?" one asked, excitedly.

"How 'bout how I took out Birdbrain here?" the other snickered, pulling Aviarius up by his collar.

"That'll teach him to mess with the Morgan sisters!"

"Umm, excuse me, ladies…" Hego called out.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the woman in white ran over to the birdcage before turning to her sister. "Feliah, does he have the key?"

"Of course he does," Feliah reached into Aviarius's breast pocket and pulled out a rather bulky key. She threw it to her sister who unlocked the cage, throwing the door open with a flourish.

"Ta-da!" she exclaimed, "Welcome to freedom, dear children. My name is Mariah Morgan and this is my sister Feliah. We'll be your liberators this evening," she said in a sing-song voice, bowing for her "audience".

Shego surveyed her "liberators" suspiciously. Never before had she seen two people so different yet… so alike. Mariah was dressed all in white, down to her white hair which Shego couldn't guess if it was dyed or not. Feliah was clothed in a similar jumpsuit, except in black, with hair the same length and style, only black. Their mannerisms were also total opposites. Where Mariah was bubbly and friendly, Feliah seemed stand-offish and dark. Mariah displayed a bright smile; Feliah's smile was a sly smirk. Mariah greeted them warmly; Feliah stood off to the side, barely acknowledging them. And yet the sisters seemed hardly conscious of their differences at all. It was strange, but in those first few moments of introduction Shego couldn't help but wonder if the sisters ever had a disagreement between each other in their lives.

"Who exactly are you?" Shego asked.

"We're enemies of Aviarius," Mariah piped in as naturally as ever. "We've been following him for almost a week now. We knew he was up to something because he only takes the condor when he's up to something."

"But…what did Aviarius even want?" Zeb asked.

"You mean you don't know?" Feliah said slyly. Her voice had a dark, eerie quality, almost as if she was hissing. It gave Shego the creeps.

"You're the family who got hit by that comet!" Mariah said as if they had won some grand prize.

"Actually it was a freak fire acci… Ow! What?" Hego glared at Shego, who had dug her heel into his foot.

Feliah rolled her eyes. "I think you four better come with us."

Shego stepped forward. "Look, we appreciate your help but we're not going anywhere except back home. We've had enough bizarre acquaintances to last a lifetime." Mariah jumped in between Shego and her sister.

"Shego, you don't understand what dangers you'll be facing with these powers. And now that your whole family has them… it would be much better if you came with us."

"How do you know so much about my family?"

"We can explain everything, just not here. Come back to our place with us." Mariah gestured.

"We're late for school…"

"School can wait, this is gonna effect your entire lives!"

Before Shego could get out another word, Hego had stepped between them. "We'd love to come with you, ladies. Except Zeb here, he doesn't have any powers, you see, and…"

"If Zeb isn't coming, I'm not coming!" Shego cut in. "I trust him more than any of you anyhow."

With a reluctant sigh, Hego agreed, and, after Aviarius was cuffed to the birdcage all four teenagers followed the Morgan sisters out the door and into the adventure most children only dream about.

**AN: Yeeeeaaahhh…. So I've decided the best way to explain this highly confusifying plotline is by going through Shego's past so the next couple of chapters are gonna be straight flashbacks, which means no more going back and forth between past and present cuz that was just way too confusing. Much thanks to all those sticking with this story, I really appreciate it. **


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